Inside the Mind of Killers and Pilots
by CASE iN POiNT
Summary: Team Platinum is the newest team running the IG1 circuit and sparks run with them. But this season, the number one concern is quite different. There's a killer on the loose.
1. Meet the Rookies

**Disclaimer: This is going to go for the whole story, okay? I don't own IGPX or anything of the sort. (Although I kind of wish I did.) The only thing I own are my characters from Team Platinum and crew, including their awesome possum names. Party on.**  
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**CHAPTER 1**  
_Meet the Rookies_

The track was silent. Until…

"OH YEAH, BABY! IG1!" Jax shouted, punching the air with a fist. "Dude, can you believe it?" he then asked his fellow teammate, Beckem, elbowing him in the arm and causing him to give a subdued "ow" and rub the place of impact. But Beckem didn't yell at him like he normally would. Because Beckem knew Jax was right. And I knew Jax was right.

Although my excitement just didn't show.

I turned back around to face forward, looking at the home stretch before me reverently. _In a couple of days, I'll be the one racing on this track,_ I thought, closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath. I let myself go and suddenly, I could almost hear the fans screaming in the stands and feel the rumbling of the mechs on the track. Benjamin Bright's voice was somewhere above me yelling something about, "Team Platinum…!"

"Come on, guys, it's almost four. We should get going," Beckem said behind me. I rocketed back to the present.

"Yeah, we should," I said quietly, turning to go while telling the track, _I'll be back later._

**_---zoOM--- _**

I hated this standing around on a stage for millions of viewers to stare at me and critique me while not aware that I was wearing high heels. The opening ceremony for the IGPX, I thought, even when I was a small kid watching it, was terribly boring. I had said to my dad, "I feel sorry for those pilots." And then in the same breath I had said, "I'm going to be a pilot one day." Which made my dad laugh and say with a small smile, "Sweetheart, don't be silly. When you grow up, you'll be doing something much better than racing…"

"The rookies this year is Team Platinum, standing right here to my right. Let's give them a warm welcome!" Benjamin said, gesturing to us with his usual gusto and flourish. _Hey, dad, look I'm on TV. As what? An IGPX pilot! That's right!_

After the applause, Benjamin approached us and I felt someone hit my left foot. I knew it was Jax, because he was on my left. It was like he was trying to tell me, _aww man, look here he comes! I can't believe it!_ Just suck it up, I felt like saying.

"Forward Lotus Carmarand, what do you have to say about the tough competition your team will have to face this year?" I expected this. The meeting the whole team held yesterday, cutting into my soaking-up-the-track time, was just about how I was supposed to handle this question. How I was supposed to watch Benjamin Bright poke the mike in my face and how I was supposed to not puke when he did it. And how I was supposed to smile and say…

"I'm looking forward to it. We all are. We're going to try our very best to win our races, but mainly this is just our big chance to go up against the best. We'll learn a lot from this experience and if we don't do as spectacular as Team Satomi did in their first season, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we'll grow from the experience, individually and as a team."

"Wow! Encouraging and eloquent words from the rookie Forward." Benjamin Bright stepped away from me and the lights on me receded, allowing me room to take a deep shaky breath. Had I just said all that? _Off the top of my freaking head?_

Man, I was good.

"Forward Takeshi Jin from Team Satomi, what do you have to say about the rookie team and what do you expect of your own third season?"

The lights zoned in on Takeshi and I watched him smile easily. "I hope the rookie team _is_ like us when we were in our first season, because we all love a good fight no matter what. As for the season, it should get a bit easier for us as we use the experience we gained from our previous season. It's still going to be tough and challenging, but perhaps the road to victory won't be as rocky as last season."

"And that's from Takeshi Jin, ladies and gentlemen. Give it up for the competing teams in the IGPX this year!" The lights came back super strong now, on all of us unlucky pilots that had been made to stand here like Barbie dolls. Smiling. Because you have to gather a fan base, said our knowledgeable manager, Mr. Karlen. Blah blah blah.

**_---zoOM---_**

"Why are you going to walk around barefoot again?" Beckem asked me in an urgent and hushed whisper. I could understand why he was a bit tense. True, we were rookies, but that didn't mean that we had to be meek and quiet and sit in a corner and only talk when we were talked to about it.

I held up my magenta high heels that matched my dress and shook them in his face. "Would you like to wear them for the rest of the evening?"

"Uh, no."

"I didn't think so," I finished, giving him a withering glance and then turning around to give them to a man waiting at the door to take coats and jackets. He looked me a bit weirdly before he took them.

"Come on, man," Jax said behind me to Beckem, "lighten up. We get to party!"

"Great," Beckem replied, sarcasm blunt.

I walked into the considerably sized room in which the welcoming ball was going to be held. Approximately three more hours that I had to spend milling about with people as uptight as rival pilots. Whoever thought we would enjoy this little dance and proposed that it was a good idea must have been on drugs. And whoever had approved it…well…

I promptly traveled over to a group of chairs up against a wall and then sat, crossing one leg over the other resolutely, not planning on getting up unless there was a fire, stampede, or elephants storming my way. Beckem came to stand next to me awkwardly as Jax did the same, if only to first survey the crowd.

"Man, I don't know if this will turn out to be a party anyway. Look how quiet it is. Like, no one's talking. And the music's crap, so of course no one is dancing," Jax observed. "Then there's the fact that everyone here is pretty much everyone else's enemy…"

"You just figured that out?" I asked him, shaking my head. "That's why I refuse to go out there."

"Eh, whatever, I'm going. Beck, you coming with me?"

Beckem turned to look at me and immediately I was annoyed of him. "It's not like I'm going to get mugged if you don't watch me, Beck. I'm a big girl." He gave me a skeptical look and then turned to follow Jax. I took a deep breath and let it out shakily, watching him retreat.

Beckem Gerald was a good guy, really. He was sweet, polite, courteous, and funny. He couldn't beat Jax in the humor department for his life, but he was still pretty good, making the two of them together a comic riot. Beckem also wasn't that bad looking either. And I definitely saw all those things. But somehow, he annoyed me…very easily. He was very protective, and I wished that I could say he was protective of all his friends, but no, it seemed he was only protective of me. He also had anger problems and when he got angry, it was like he needed to be locked up in his own little cage with tranquilizers. He was a great when he got angry at the opponent though, because then he'd be a great Defender and I wouldn't have to worry about anyone or anything touch me for pretty much the whole race, or until his anger died down.

"Come on, guys, lighten up!" I heard someone yell pretty loudly. Without looking up, I knew who was making a fool of himself. I placed my forehead into my hands and sighed. Jax was something else all right.

"Hello, ladies," I next heard him say. Uh-oh. I looked up quickly and watched as he tried to entice at least one of the pilots from Team Skylark to dance with him. Fantine was, of course, probably already attached to Takeshi somewhere, but the other two were there and looking not amused. In fact, they looked like he was a fly that they wanted to swat. And I wished that Jax, being the rookie that he was, would try to at least save _some_ face.

But it was Jax. My hopes for him went out the window long ago.

It wasn't that he was stupid. Ajax Foxtrot not only had the coolest name around, but he also was the best Midfielder around. If only he'd show his focused side more, in practice and in real life. The most trivial thing'd distract him easily, but in a race, he had a one _track_ mind, which was good for us and bad for the other team. He was also excessively outgoing and, obviously, didn't mind being looked down on and thought of as a fool, as us being friends of his did so often. Mr. Karlen didn't like him and was always dropping hints about replacing him, but he knew that if he dropped Jax, he'd be losing us as well. And Beckem and I have probably been the best thing so far to happen to Mr. Karlen and his relatively new organization. We brought him to the IG1s, didn't we?

"Not the party type?"

"Hmm? What?" I said quickly, jumping in surprise. Unbeknownst to me, someone had quietly sat down next to me and was watching the milling about of the uneasy pilots with me. I turned and practically finished falling off my chair.

Alex Cunningham. _THE _Alex Cunningham. And I had thought he, because he always acted so cool, had special privileges to skip out on these kind of things to get in more practice time. Because that was probably the kind of guy he was. Victory focused, no fun, no parties, no laughing, no talking, no smiling, no nothing.

But here he was. And after the initial surprise, he didn't faze me one stinkin' bit. At least, that what I liked to think.

"Sorry if I scared you," he said gently, eyes still on the other pilots. He had an arm casually draped over the back of the chair to his right and he had one foot up, the ankle rest on his other leg.

"It's okay," I said simply, tearing my gaze away from him. Despite him being a big ego-centered guy with only one thing important to him (uh, winning, like I just told you), he was still pretty hot. And he definitely had a nice body. Not that I was looking.

"I saw your championship race in the IG2s," he said then. Again, he took me by surprise. I almost said, "You WHAT?" but then caught myself just in time. Instead, I tried to get back into my comfort zone of always having the upper hand in a conversation.

"Wow, I'm flattered. What'd you think?" Yeah, what were you THINKING? Didn't you know that was precious time you could have spent reviewing race footage of Team Satomi or something productive like that? And most importantly, why'd you even bother with the IG2s?

"I wanted to get a real taste of the competition, which would be you guys," –he said it like I didn't know— "And besides, I hadn't been in a race in ages. I mean, watched one from the stands. I've been to more than I can count." I smiled when he finished speaking, inwardly satisfied that he _had_ been doing it after all to help him win this season. Yep, I was right. There was a little silence before he went on, "I think you guys are going to have to do a lot of work before you can start really racing with us. Unless you want to get majorly embarrassed."

Oh of course. How he was using the intimidate-your-opponent-even-before-the-season-has-"officially"-begun tactic. How second grade. And yet even as he said it, I felt a sting of resentment and anger. "Thanks, I'll keep it in mind," I said in what I thought was a pretty cool and offhanded voice.

"Well, then, I'm flattered," he replied and immediately I turned to glare at him. I absolutely hated it when people mocked me. I fully intended to shoot flaming daggers at him with my eyes except, when I whipped my head around, it was like he had already expected me to do so, that he read my personality so well that he knew I was going to get extremely angry at him. My eyes got tripped up in his warm brown ones that were slightly dimmed by the dim room we were all in. I forgot my signature glare and just stared at him as he regarded me back.

It was then I realized that this was how it was going to be with him. He would always know my next move, no matter what I did, no matter what stunt I pulled, and no matter how fantastic or cool to look at it was. He would always be ahead by a step. He would always know just what to do to combat it and then draw me into doing another totally predictable action.

He was just that good. Damn.

"Don't soak me in too much right now," he said with a smile small, standing up. Gosh, he was tall. "You're going to be getting a lot of me these next few weeks."

Immediately, a part of me was all, _oh, I don't mind at all._ I scowled. "Don't be offended if I say that I'm not looking forward to it," I countered.

"Then don't be offended if I say that I'm not looking forward to the day our match is either," he said graciously, giving me a little bow. "See you around." Then he walked away and left.

I stared at his back and tried to sort things out. So, he had called my team crap, basically, and then just before he leaves he says that he's not looking forward to race us? What is that supposed to _mean_? He doesn't want to because we're good? Or he doesn't want to because we're just that terrible?

Wow, he had no idea how much he just made me hate him.

**_---zoOM---_**

"All right, guys, you have to pay attention," Addy Kelly said to us sternly. She was our coach and she was awesome and cruel at the same time. I loved her. "As you all probably know, our first race is against Skylark. Our first race also happens to be the first race of the season, because the IGPX seems to love to pick on rookies. But we don't care do we?" She got a collection of our heads shaking. "That's right, we don't care. And we're going to blow Skylark back into next week."

See why I love her?

The screens behind her flicked into life, all of them one part of showing us a larger picture: one of Skylark's mechs in action. Addy stepped to the side a little so we could see everything, as she gestured to the screens. "Meet Fantine's mech, Lotus. Her signature is the rapidly moving arms, capable of delivering tens of blows a second and deadly if you don't know how to properly block them. All of them have pretty powerful arms, and so avoiding them is your best bet. They are all designed to maximize drafting techniques."

All three of us watched, spell bound, as the screens in front of us showed us a collection of clips from Skylark's past races. I soaked in every word Addy said to us, absorbing the clips in front of me as well. This was my first race in the big leagues and someone was going to have to shoot me for me not to do a good job.

"Overall, Skylark isn't that hard of a opponent to beat. You just, like every team, need to know how to work them. Fortunately for you, this team isn't that hard to work." She smiled at us. "I have faith in you, Team Platinum. You just have to show the world what you got."

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**A/N:** **This is my first IGPX fic and I'm _pretty_ excited about it.** **I have to thank dark-raven0 again, because she beta read this thing for me. (Check our her poem in IGPX. It's nice.) The title is temporary, though I might just get too lazy to change it down the road. And yes, it is another one of those stinkin' fics with a OCteam. Well, please stick this through with me. Hopefully, it will turn out to be a good story. With all of your support (flaming or not), I might just be able to finish this story through to the end. (What an amazing concept!)**

**P.S. I'm also planning on setting each race in this story with a song, kind of like a mini songfic. Hopefully you guys will like that too. Cheers! **


	2. Skylark

**Disclaimer: I also happen to not own the song "Lights and Sounds" by Yellowcard. But rocking out to it is all mine. (You can do it too.)  
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**CHAPTER 2**  
_Skylark_

"Wooo! You siked? I'm siked!" Jax yelled, bouncing as we walked down the long corridor to our mechs. I sighed, already tired for him as I watched him waste energy. We shouldn't have let him down that cup of coffee. I mean, it wasn't that early in the morning. And just because Jax isn't a morning person…

"You guys ready?" was what Brad Daniels greeted us with. His infectious smile made all of us give him one back. Brad was just that way, like jolly old Santa Clause…until you mess with his technology. Then he goes all Jackie Chan on you, without the humor.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Beckem said calmly as he allowed Brad to fit him inside the cockpit of his mech. That was a good and accurate way of putting what I was feeling right now into words. I nodded to no one in particular and watched as Jax went inside his mech too, still woohooing about the race. Finally, Brad turned to me and clapped his hands together.

"All right, super star, let's get you in the beauty."

_**---zoOM---**_

"Dun-nuh dun-nuh dun-nuh dun-nuh dun-nuh dun-nuh…"

"Jax, would you shut up already?" Beckem said hostilely to his teammate, who really was getting annoying. We were already pulling up into our start positions and he was still goofing off.

"Yeah, Jax, please cut it out," I said to him, my voice quieter because I was distracted by more important things. This was it. The moment, the chance, the dream, the fantastic. And now I got to be a part of it.

Hopefully, I wouldn't screw all this gloriousness up.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop, Lotus. See, Beckem, she said the magic word."

Beckem growled loudly. "Just shut your trap, Ajax!"

Quiet suddenly reigned over the communicator. I could only hope that either Jax had finally gained enough sense to shut up or that the other two had finally realized what I had realized. That this was it. All that practicing and joking…and now it was true.

"All right, take your mark, guys," I said as a warning, alerting them to the fact that the countdown clock was below ten. I watched as the numbers decreased in size second by second, feeling the tension in me building up to an almost unbearable amount…

"AND THEY'RE OFF!"

Immediately, I surged forward, putting all of my tension and exhilaration into shooting out onto the track. The speed jump plastered me back into the seat of the cockpit. And then I couldn't help but smile. I saw the Skylark girls circling in front of us, but that didn't faze me at all.

"WOO!" Jax screamed into the communicator. "Jesus, guys! Guess what? WE'RE IN THE IGPX!"

"Yeah!" I screamed with him, screwing manners and focus for just this second. The first lap was just to get a feel for everything. And I was pretty sure that in the state I was in, the feel for the track had come the minute I had waddled my mech onto it.

"'_Hello, you. How was the rest? You made it through, but nevertheless. I got you, out on a wire. You be love and…'_" Jax was singing, continuing the song he had been humming earlier.

Somebody other than the three of us suddenly cleared his or her throat over the communicator. "Guys, where are you?" Addy's voice said slowly into my ears. Immediately I felt a little guilty.

"Sorry, Addy. I'm focused, don't worry. I just had to get my jitters out somehow."

"Yeah, me too!" Jax hurriedly chimed in.

"All right, I'll allow you that. But that's _it_. If you screw up this race now, all three of you will be serious toast. Extra crispy."

_Hello, you__  
How was the rest?__  
You made it through, but nevertheless__  
I got you, out on a wire__  
You be love and I'll be a liar_

"We're coming into the second lap, y'all," I said, not meaning to have a southern drawl. Really, I could have cared less about talking. All I was focused on was Fantine, Fantine, Fantine. And taking her out. Not to dinner, but to a mechanical grave.

"All right, guys, you know the plan. One on one, all right?" Beckem said over the communicator. "You know your man…I mean, girl. So…" –I watched as Skylark's mechs all changed into the more limber battle position— "…let's go get 'em!"

Immediately, I had my mech push off from the track a couple strokes, making me close in on the mechs in front of me quickly. Both Skylark's Midfielder and Defender turned around to stop me, but I shouldered my way through before hearing the first crash of the race come from my left, where Beckem was probably violently engaging with the Skylark Defender.

_Tell it all and fill up the air__  
But make it loud, 'cause nobody's there__  
And nobody's there__  
And nobody's there__  
Stop, turn, take a look around_

Fantine probably knew instinctively that I was coming for her. She sped away from me and I chased her. We went into a loop. I felt the speed pushing me back, farther, farther, attempting to meld me into the pilot's chair. I pushed the speed faster, faster, loving the thrill and the pressure of physics.

There was another, louder and longer crash on my right. I didn't know what happened and didn't want to turn around to find out. I pushed on, keeping all eyes on Fantine and her speeding mech. We came out of the loop and went into another. Faster, faster.

_At all the lights and sounds__  
Let 'em bring you in__  
Slow burn__  
Let it all fade out__  
And pull the curtain down__  
I wonder where you've been_

Suddenly, I felt something grab me from behind and drag, or more like, fling me back. I gritted my teeth as my mech shook from the action. The Skylark Midfield mech drifted into my view. I watched from over the mech's shoulder as Fantine skated further away. The Midfielder skated backwards and flexed its claw-like hands. I wondered where Jax got to for only a second. Then I took advantage of the end of the loop to put on a burst of speed and zoom directly for the Midfielder, at the last moment whipping out an arm to punch…

_Make it new but stay in the lines__  
Just let go but keep it inside_

Never would I have expected to be too slow. The Midfielder's incredibly agile arm plucked my incoming blow out of the sky like an incoming ball. With the Midfielder's arm imprisoning mine I knew I was in trouble. Before I could react, she gave me a series of stunning blows. I groaned as I tried to withstand the attack without falling apart.

Finally, after the continuous stream of damage, I felt a lull in the strikes. Immediately I struck out with my other arm, only to have that one blocked too. But I was expecting that and I had a plan; immediately I bent and swept one of my mech's legs around the Midfielder's. Taken by surprise, she was tripped onto her back and skidded behind me, out of view. Not regaining my balance quick enough, it took a few seconds to get back on my feet.

But before even I could react, I was off again searching for Fantine.

_Smile big for everyone__  
Even when you know what they've done__  
They gave you the end__  
But not when to start_

My mech was badly shaken up, I could tell. I no longer risked the action of pushing my mech at full speed. Taking it only slightly down a notch, I narrowed my eyes at the track in front of me and at the small mech that was Fantine, determined to catch up and take her out…

Until the yellow caution strip flashed in front of me. The running skeletons were out. "Who's hurt?" I asked everyone in general over the communicator.

"Me," Jax said, although sounding as cheerful as ever. "You got pretty beat up too."

As required, I slowed my mech down. "Yeah, but you probably got it worse."

"He did, believe me," Brad's voice came over the communicator. I couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, hey, but Skylark's Midfielder is in worse shape than me at least."

"That was because I had to scuffle with her," I pointed out to him with a grin on my face. It was immediately wiped away when Addy's angry voice thundered onto the communicator, instantly making everyone deathly silent.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" she screamed at us. "Are the practices not helping you? Are you not even paying attention in practice? Where are your voices? Why aren't you TALKING?"

All three of us probably were scratching our heads now. I didn't get it. But I'd be the last one to say it. Finally, Beckem did. "Uh…what?"

"You guys aren't communicating during the race, for god sakes!" she bellowed, making me wince and try to shrink away from her voice. "You guys are SILENT. And when you are SILENT you make _mistakes_. And when you make _mistakes_, you get demoted back into the IG2s as laughingstocks. All right? Do you, all three of you, understand me now? Talk to each other, god damn it, unless you want me to come out there and personally kill each of you."

The caution strip was starting to flicker and fade. Addy's end of the communicator was also deathly quiet after her outburst. I took an awkward, shaky, and nervous breath. "Okay, then guys," I finally said after a while, because obviously no one else would say anything, "you heard the coach. Keep each of us updated, all right?"

Suddenly, the yellow caution turned into a blue GO! And I went, full speed, testing my mech to see if it could once again handle full speed with the little rest it got.

_Not how to build__  
How to tear it apart  
__So tell it all and fill up the air_

"I pushed the Defender pretty far back and with the damage it sustained, it probably won't be any more of a threat. I'm coming right up next to you, Lotus."

"All right, Beck, but don't lag. I'm gonna go fast."

I zoomed down the track, passing the finish to go into my third lap, the lap that really counted. Fantine seemed to be slowing down as well, probably sensing the fact that she was going to have to fight at some point and might as well make it now. I sped up even more when this registered, hoping to engage her even while her back was turned.

_But make it loud, 'cause nobody's there__  
And nobody's there__  
Stop, turn, take a look around_

I was almost in striking range when she whipped around to face me, erasing that plan for me. However, I still came at her, reassured even more when Beckem said, "Right beside you. Let's get her between us and play with her a little."

"Righto," I confirmed. As we plunged into the tunnel, I watched as Fantine revealed her claw-like hands. Then I charged and she charged.

_At all the lights and sounds_  
_Let 'em bring you in_  
_Slow burn_  
_Let it all fade out__  
And pull the curtain down__  
I wonder where you've been_

She grabbed me the minute we were in range. My brain went _uh-oh_ as she wasted no time in slamming me into the nearest tunnel wall. I could hear my mech screeching terribly as the metal scraped against the wall. I gritted my teeth again and struggled to get out of the hold, pushing, kicking, anything. The sound was almost getting too much to bear and I was almost ready to start screaming when I heard Beckem give a roar. In the next second, Fantine's mech went flying away from me, her grip literally torn from me.

Beckem immediately came over and helped me straighten up. I faced forward and watched the full effects of a Defender crashing into a Forward. Fantine's mech was just landing from being in the air for probably a few seconds. It rolled and crashed, sending up a collection of impressive sparks as it slid even farther on its side. Because a Defender's mech was so much more bulky and heavy compared to a Forward's mech, the collision effects could be seriously fatal.

_I've got a way to work this out_  
_I've got a way if you know how_  
_I've got a way to work this out_  
_I've got a way if you know how_  
_I've got a way to work this out_  
_I've got a way_

Not for experienced Fantine, however. Just as I was skating hurriedly past her out of the tunnel with Beckem right beside me, I crashed onto my face in a jarring impact. I yelled in surprise and closed my eyes, feeling all my bones shift in my body. Immediately I tried to push myself up, realizing that my mech had come to a complete stop and that was bad in any event and in any race. I pulled on my right foot and realized that it had gotten stuck. I swiveled my mech's upper body around slightly to see that Fantine had grabbed onto it. She was also using it to pull herself up.

"Hey, Lotus, where'd you go?" Beckem asked, suddenly aware that I was not skating beside him anymore. He hadn't noticed my embarrassing face-planter and had went on.

"Just keep going, Beck, don't worry about me," I forced out through gritted teeth while trying to wrestle my own foot away from Fantine's killer grip.

_I've got a way to work this out__  
I've got a way if you know how__  
I've got a way to work this out__  
I've got a way_

"Are you sure? You don't sound okay." And there it was again, that protective, wavering voice. And in a race…I felt the anger course through me.

"Just shut up and cross the finish line already, Beckem!" I yelled at him through the communicator. Unconsciously, I brought my right foot down in a hard, angry stomp. It jarred me again to my very bones, but after a second, I suddenly realized that that was what I had needed to get rid of Fantine. Unfortunately, she was already pretty much on her feet when I got rid of her. Immediately I accelerated, swerving at first but then smoothly sailing down the track, hoping to create as much distance between her as I could.

_I've got a way to work this out  
I've got a way if you know how  
I've got a way to work this out  
I've got a way_

Unfortunately, all that distance went to waste anyway. Probably only ten seconds later, she was crashing into me again from behind, this time with more force than before. I turned around to find behind her the Midfielders duking it out. I considered the possibility that her Midfielder could have thrown her ahead to give her a little boost before I had to hurriedly bring up an arm to block a strike.

Fantine was getting frustrated, I could tell. Her strikes were getting sloppier and slower. Finally, I was able to grab her mechs arms with my considerably slower ones. Then, I repaid the favor by ramming her mech into the railing of the track. She was the one frantic now, trying to get away. I saw her Midfielder out of the corner of my eye, frantic that her beloved Forward was getting hurt. She tried to pull way from Jax, but that only resulted in Jax pulling her back in and bashing her mech's head with his, his patent move. It was stupid, but it gave Benjamin Bright something to obsess over.

_Stop, turn, take a look around  
At all the lights and sounds_

I saw Jax seize the moment to try and close the gap between him and me. "Jax, I'm sending the princess to you," I said over the communicator. "Catch her and send her into the Midfielder. It was what the Midfielder wanted, after all."

Jax laughed raucously, delighted that victory was in sight. "All right, I'm ready."

Using the last of my fighting energy, I pulled her away from the railing and then shoved her backwards. She wobbled, unsteady, before Jax grabbed her roughly from behind. I didn't stay to watch the result. Knowing that the last turn would be coming soon, I put my mech at full speed, skating powerfully a last few times before putting my mech into Speed Mode.

_Let 'em bring you in  
Slow burn  
Let it all fade out  
And pull the curtain down  
I wonder where you've been_

Up ahead, I saw the bulky shape of Beckem's mech, already in Speed Mode. Just because of the sheer lightness of my mech, I started closing in on him. It didn't matter though.

"Hi, Beck!" I called cheerfully through my mike. "Ready to make it official?"

"Oh yeah," he said as we swung around for home stretch.

_You earned  
Everything you found  
And painted faces frown  
I'll say I knew you when…_

The sound of applause when Beckem crossed the finish line with me seconds after was deafening. It was so loud that I could even hear it through my mech's machinery. But all I could think of was the race that I had just finished, experienced, lived through. And now I, we, had done it.

"Good job, guys," Addy said wearily, cutting through my excitement. It sounded like she'd been working just as hard as we had. "You managed to make it through."

* * *

**A/N:** **Oh I just love all you reviewers. You just seriously make my day. I didn't know this story would be that big of a hit but I'm excited that it did okay! Special thanks to my anonymous reviewers (you know who you are -wink, wink-).**

** So, if you choose to review, I'd like you to comment on how well I did this whole battle thing. I'm a "rookie" at writing an IGPX battle scene, as you probably can see. Was it not exciting enough? Well, it's your job to tell me!**

** Until next time...  
**


	3. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

** Disclaimer: Uh...I don't o--hey, I already did this!  
**

**

* * *

CHAPTER 3  
** _Wrong Place, Wrong Time_

"To the team!" Mr. Karlen said cheerily, holding up his Styrofoam cup of sparkling apple cider.

"To the team!" all of us repeated after him, raising our cups as well. I didn't know about anyone else, but I was totally faking all this happiness stuff to make Mr. Karlen feel like he's actually useful. Don't get me wrong; I was very excited about winning our first race. I mean, I was bouncing up and down onstage after we got out of our mechs and Benjamin Bright came over to talk to us. But, to me, Mr. Karlen was an instant killjoy.

As I downed my apple cider, my favorite drink in the whole entire world, Jax jostled into my elbow, causing me to spill some down my shirt. Immediately I made a protesting noise in my throat, hopping back to prevent more from spilling. "Jax!"

"Sorry! I'm just too excited!" he said, bouncing up and down and then making a crazy face. I gave him a big smile as well and it was then that I promptly made up my mind to leave this team party as soon as I could

_**---zoOM---**_

The streets in this town that was pretty much entirely devoted to IGPX were amazing at night. Neon signs flashed in my face, kids ran around holding balloons that they had bought from some vender that was still around this late at night, hot dog stands were still open…it was like a never-ending party city.

I turned the corner and suddenly found myself at a street fair. Wrapping my jacket around myself, I couldn't help but smile at the scene and noises all around me, just screaming that this was a happy place and shouldn't be for me. But I walked on, trying to keep out of people's way and not talk to anybody.

I found, after a while, that I had wandered into a souvenir shop. I smiled, looking at all the keychains and postcards that could be sent to someone back home, wherever home might be. Then I turned and saw a rack holding miniature versions of…

"My mech?" I breathed, not daring to believe this. I was holding up to the light an exact replica of my mech, except smaller, of course. It was crazy. I turned it over and over, running my hands over the excellent detail of the toy. We were just a rookie team, and yet…

I stepped back from the rack and saw that the first three shelves were for my team. The Forward mechs, mine, were on top. Then came the Midfielders. Then came the Defenders. Underneath us were three racks of little minis of Skylark's mechs. What a coincidence…

"Cute, huh?"

I could feel the shot of surprise run through me as I looked up and saw Cunningham's face that had apparently popped up behind the little rotating rack. I thought that I had done a good job hiding my surprise at his presence (again) until he said, "Sorry if I surprised you."

"Do you start every conversation off with an apology?" I asked him, looking back down at my mini mech and moving the little arms. It was in Battle Mode at the moment, but after a few tries I managed to change it into the normal mode, the way it was in races at the very beginning.

Cunningham seemed to ignore my question. "Want to race?"

"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him and completely not understanding.

"Race. Want to?" He jerked his head behind him. I moved to stand on his side of the rack and saw a miniature racetrack on a table nearby, exactly like the one we were racing on for the real races.

"Man, they thought of everything," I said quietly, admiring the detail of the toy.

"Well?" Cunningham persisted, holding up a mini Team Velshtein Forward mech and shaking it a little.

I considered it and then smiled. "All right. But only if I can be Team Velshtein."

"Why would you want to be Team Velshtein?" he asked me as he handed his little mech over and I handed him mine.

"Because they're good," I said to him with a smile, walking to survey where the starting places were.

We placed them both where the Forwards should go, and then Cunningham pressed a big red button on the side of the foundation of the toy track. I watched as mini screens next to the mechs flickered on, showing 5, 4, 3…

"Two…" Cunningham said.

"One…" I said.

"AND THEY'RE OFF!" we said at the same time, punching a fist into the air in an excellent impression of Benjamin Bright. We didn't see the storeowner give us a weird look and then give us an oh-my-freaking-god look.

There were even mini sparks as the mechs started off, zooming down the track at what was supposed to be over 350 speeds, but what was actually probably something close to under 4. In any case, I watched, astounded, at what, technology could do. My mech, the Velshtein Forward, pulled ahead for the first lap. They were skating in small circles because they'd probably been programmed to be skating with all their team members.

"I'm winning," I joked to Cunningham.

Cunningham gave me a little smile. "I'll catch up."

Whoosh, and the mechs were on their second lap. Automatically, both the Forwards morphed into Battle Mode. I watched, delighted, as the Platinum Forward closed the gap between it and the Velshtein Forward and then deliver a series of quick punches. The Velshtein Forward blocked them all and then started grappling with the Platinum Forward. The Platinum Forward was too fast to be grabbed, however. It zoomed behind the other Forward and then kicked it full in the back. The Velshtein Forward was knocked onto its front as the Platinum Forward skated away.

"Now who's winning?" Cunningham asked me. I scowled.

"Oh my god! It's them!"

"No way! Ohh, I want a picture!"

"Alex Cunningham, can I have your autograph?"

"Hey, look, it's that good-for-nothing rookie."

"Ohh, she _is_ pretty."

"Cunningham, can you sign your card for me?"

"I'm Velshtein's biggest fan!"

We both whirled around, our intense toy race forgotten, and saw a nightmare. We were surrounded by rabid fans.

"I think it's time to get out of here," Cunningham said. I was just about to agree when he grabbed my hand and charged directly through the crowd.

I screamed.

**_---zoOM---_**

"Um, I honestly don't think I should be here," I said to Cunningham as he pulled me through the crowd of a nightclub. He probably didn't hear me because the nightclub noises were so loud. He kept pulling me through. I was hoping that he was actually purposefully going somewhere before I spotted the two other Team Velshtein pilots. They made me relieved and nervous at the same time.

"What's she doing here?" one of them asked, looking at me like I was a nasty bug. At the same time, Cunningham said, a little out of breath, "Hey, guys."

"And you guys have been…" the other pilot prompted, moving one of his hands in a circular motion that asked for us to finish his sentence.

"Running away from a swarm of killer fans," I finished for him. He snorted and half-laughed at my comment, which I took as kind of a good sign.

"So," the second pilot continued. I think I remembered his name as Jan something-something. "You guys did good for rookies in the first race."

"Against Skylark? You're kidding me. We'd beat them just by blowing on them," the other pilot argued with a laugh. He was the other guy, um, one Dew something-something.

"But still, they _are_ rookies," Jan said, glancing at me to see if his words would have any effect. I had already made sure not to show any emotion on my face. I smiled at him politely, a smile that showed that I wasn't really paying attention. He frowned.

"So, uh, Cunningham…" Dew said awkwardly. His eyes traveled downward to look at something and then traveled back up to look at Cunningham and me. Without looking down I suddenly knew what it was Dew had glanced at. Our hands were still connected…

_Shit._

"I should be getting back to…um…yeah. I should be getting back," I said intelligently. I discreetly dropped Cunningham's (warm) hand and then made my way back through the crowd, hoping that Cunningham would know what was best for him and stay behind to chat with his buds.

"I could walk you back," he said right behind me as I got outside. _UGGGGGH._ I turned around and regarded him critically.

"Do you think this is funny?" I asked him, glaring my eyes out.

"What is?" Cunningham asked innocently. I suddenly had the strong urge to slap him in the face.

"Nothing. See you later." Before he could say something else cool and unpredictable, I ran off, dodging people as well as I could, not giving them time to say to me, "Hey, aren't you that girl…?"

* * *

**A/N: Mmkay, so I know this chapter is a little short. But I'd rather end it there instead of having a weird ending. So sue me. XP**

** Thanks to ALL OF MY WONDER REVIEWERS! You guys are so cool. And you rock my nonexistent socks. Because you make me, like, swim in praise. And I know that's bad. But it's good. Don't worry. You can, uh, give me more praise if you'd like. Haha. O:D (That's Miss Angel me, with my halo. Not for one night stands. Anyone who can tell me what song that's from will get a cookie. And no cheating to go look at reviews before you answer.)**

** So yeah, I wish that I could write eps for IGPX. Like, for real. That would be shweet.**

** But for now, I'll stick to teh story. YEAH!**

**Does Lotus like Cunningham?**

**Ha. Like I'd tell you now.**

**Until next time! -zooms off- **


	4. Breaking News

**CHAPTER 4  
** _Breaking News_

I had to wake up. I couldn't keep on faking this sleep when the sun was practically giving me a sunburn on my eyelids. But I so didn't want to open my eyes and face reality. Because that would mean I had to do something. And I was too lazy to do anything today. It was just one of those days, you know?

I was abnormally tired. What had I been doing yesterday? I dunno.

There was something important that I had to do today. I forgot. So now that I forgot, it was okay to sleep in.

I stretched, keeping my eyes closed, and threw back my hands behind my head. It didn't work out as smooth as I had planned. My hands rammed into the wall behind me and my eyes flew open as I groaned. The sun eagerly sought to make my now open eyes hurt. I sat up, rubbed my head, and then turned around to glare at that stupid wall.

Only to find that it wasn't the conventional wall in my room. The walls here were blue and silver and there was practically no furniture in this room except for the bed I was sitting in. Well, there was a little table on top of which held my stereo and digital alarm clock. At least that was something familiar. Then there were the sliding doors that were to the closet. Not familiar.

Suddenly I remembered. I wasn't at home. No, I was at Team Platinum headquarters, in the room they had prepared for me, since I wasn't one of those lucky ones with a home in this town. Come to think of it, all of us from Team Platinum and crew were probably sleeping at headquarters. Because all of us were far, far from home.

And there was no way my parents would spend that much money just to buy me a nice house to stay at when racing season was on. My dad was already yak yak yak I am angry with you yak yak about me choosing racing as a career.

Thinking of racing reminded me of what I did yesterday, on the track, with Skylark. Still sitting in bed, I did a short and subdued victory dance. Go me, go me…

And then I remembered what I was supposed to do today. Watch the race between Satomi and Sledge Mamma. Aww…I couldn't believe I forgot. I had been looking forward to this one. Both River and Takeshi were really good (not as good as me, of course).

With that in mind, I flung myself out of bed, my sheets flying up as I pushed them away from me. Besides, I had wanted to walk around on the track a little bit in the freshness of morning. I glanced at the clock as I opened my closet door. It was a little past seven-thirty. Oh, good. I still had time.

_**---zoOM---**_

The new day's sun was much more friendly out on the track. It was cheery, sending down pretty golden light from the heavens, a perfect compliment for the fresh blue sky. I walked onto the asphalt, my hands in my sweatshirt pocket. It was a bit chilly out, but it was beautiful.

I remembered yesterday and remembered the victory. Remembered the fans. I looked toward the empty stands. Those will be filled again today. I remembered the feeling; it felt good. Except, something nagged me there. The feeling department.

As I walked along, looking down at my black Converse shoes every once in a while, I finally pinpointed what it was. Addy. It was Addy. When she was yelling at us to communicate. That bugged me. We weren't perfect. We pulled it out against Skylark, but we weren't perfect. Not even close.

Come to think of it, she hadn't seemed thrilled later when we had our small team party. No, she'd been kind of like me. Faking it.

The sound was barely there. It was a tiny little scuffle. A scuffle that told me that somebody else had stepped onto the track and that I was no longer alone. I turned, squinting my eyes against the sun and wishing that I had been smart and brought sunglasses. Finally I took a hand out of my sweatshirt pocket and held it up to block the sun. And there, standing and looking at me, was Takeshi Jin.

He was gazing at me with a little curiosity and a little blankness. He watched as I stepped toward him a little bit.

"Takeshi Jin of Team Satomi," I finally greeted him. I smiled and he smiled.

"Lotus Carmarand of Team Platinum," he responded. Slowly, he took out a hand from a pocket of the red jacket he was wearing and extended it. I took it and we shook hands slowly. Then we both turned and looked out at the track. "You guys did good yesterday."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

I don't. "Well, thanks. That means a lot coming from you. I'm sorry about beating your girlfriend though."

"Oh, um…she isn't…uh…not anymore…" he said, turning away even more and suddenly fumbling for words. I knew immediately I had made a mistake. I mentally hit myself.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Forget I said that," I said quickly. We fell into a lapse of silence before I tried to amend things with a lame joke, "I guess I don't really keep up with celebrity news."

"It's okay. I'm kind of glad you don't keep up with celebrity news. It's really tiring, getting chased around by so many strangers that think they know you." _Everyone thinks that Takeshi is just a regular teenager_, I suddenly thought, as I listened to his words and turned to glance at him, _but he really isn't. He really knows what he's doing._ "Anyway, we broke up last season, before our race."

"That must have been tough," I said without thinking. I watched as Takeshi gazed up at the sky and gave a small smile to it.

"No. It was just unexpected. You learn to deal with these kind of things, just like you gain experience from racing out here on the track." He turned his head to look at me suddenly, as if he was afraid that I was laughing at what he said. I just gazed intently back at him. He sighed and looked at the ground, the sigh almost sounding like it was from relief. "Anyway, thanks for listening to me. I better get going, though. I've got a big race today."

I smiled. "You better win. I'm going to be watching you and learning."

"Does that mean you're rooting for Satomi?" he asked me, walking backwards toward the track entrance, grinning.

"Maybe," I grinned back. Suddenly, I thought of something and just asked him, again without thinking, "Hey, Takeshi, are you over her? Fantine, I mean?"

Takeshi stopped walking and I immediately felt bad. I was kind of expecting that any shred of friendship we had just gained would evaporate. But he just gave me an odd, sad smile and said, "I don't know." Then he turned and walked away properly. "See you around."

"Yeah," I said, more to myself than to him. I stood alone for a second on the track, the breeze ruffling my hair that was pulled up into a tight ponytail. I was right. We were definitely not perfect. _I_ was definitely not perfect.

_**---zoOM---**_

"Oh my GOD," Jax said, greeting me at the lobby of our team's headquarters. He seemed a little out of breath and he grabbed both my wrists and shook them, something he had never done before. "Where the hell were you?"

"I was out on the track doing some mediation," I said indignantly, twisting my wrists way from his grasp. "Now back off. What's wrong with you anyway?"

"You didn't hear about it, did you?" he said at the same time Addy and Beckem skid out of an elevator and ran toward Jax and me at full speed when they saw us.

"Oh my god, Lotus, I'm so glad to see you're okay," Addy gushed, also gasping for breath. Beckem didn't say anything, but just nodded at me, his face paler than usual.

"What is going on?" I asked, wishing that someone would just hurry up and tell me. Addy reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone. She promptly flipped it open, hit someone that was obviously on speed dial, and then said, "Brad? Is Mr. Karlen with you? Good, we found Lotus." So, apparently, _she_ wasn't going to tell me.

I turned to Jax and Beckem. They looked at each other and then looked at me. "I think we should get to the briefing room," Jax said as Beckem nodded.

"Okay then," I said, stepping resolutely toward the elevators. "Let's go."

**_---zoOM---_**

"How could this have happened?" I gasped in horror a few minutes later. I was watching as on all the news channels imaginable, the top and only headline was the fact that there had been a death in the IGPX circle.

"The Satomi and Sledge Mamma race has just been reportedly postponed until later today, or perhaps even to tonight, to make way for this terrible tragedy and to give time to the authorities to investigate."

"Terrible breaking news today, coming from the world of IGPX racing," said another news channel and another anchor. "Let's go now to our reporter live on the scene."

"Thank you, Mary," said a reporter that was apparently standing in front of a room in which a lot of policemen were milling about in. "At around five this morning, Team Skylark's mechanic, Nancy Mathews, came down to the warehouse to check on the mechs. Apparently, all was well and so she headed back upstairs. But she never made it. On the way, she was killed. Police have confirmed that this was indeed a murder and not an unfortunate accident. The weapon used has already also been confirmed as a gun."

Then screen cut to a shot of some paramedics zipping a body bag up that apparently contained Nancy Mathews. All I caught of her was closed eyes and blonde hair before she was gone forever. All the while, the reporter was talking. "Motives for this attack are not certain, however. Whether this is related to the recent loss Team Skylark had to the new IG1 team, Team Platinum, is not positive, although investigators are not going to rule out that possibility." If the mood had been anything but this, Jax might have jumped up and yelled, "All right! We were mentioned on TV!" But right now, he had the same expression I had on: curious horror.

And besides, what a crappy way to get mentioned on television.

"There has been no word from IGPX officials about what they are going to do about this current incident and what possible steps they will take to ensure the further safety of the other IGPX pilots and their team. We will, of course, keep you updated as we gather further information. Mary, back to you."

"What a horrible, horrible tragedy this is," Mary said, shaking her head sadly. "All right, this has been a breaking news repo—"

Addy, who had possession of the TV controller, changed to another channel.

"Now, the worst thing about this tragedy officials here have said, is that the killer is still at large. There are no suspects as of yet in this case and it might take a while for investigators to come up with them. The authorities here just want to get out to all the remaining IGPX personnel and even to the IGPX fans that are scheduled to watch the races to try and stay safe. Don't go anywhere alone and try not to go out at night. If you see anyone doing anything suspicious, contact local police immediately.

"As for the IGPX pilots, it has been said that security will be tightened at every team's headquarters and security will be tightened at the races. This will hope to deter the killer from striking again. Mack, back to you…"

With that, Addy turned off the TV and let her hand drop back to her side like it was a dumbbell. For a while we all just stood there, still facing the now blank and black television. None of us knew what to do or say. Finally, Addy placed the controller on the table and then headed for the sliding door.

"Make sure you pilots find out when the race will be. I still want you to watch it," she said quietly before she left the room.

* * *

**A/N: And the long awaited killer appears! Yay! Although it's a bit wrong, I bet you are excited!**

** I didn't get many reviews for the last chapter and it made me sad but it also made me realize that it wasn't that great of a chapter. I reread it and I was like, _okay, that's kind of bland._ I guess it was a filler chapter thingy. Sorry about that.  
**

** Anyway, currently inside the brain of this authoress is...**

**-Another IGPX story in the making (which means I'm thinking it through very carefully and have written half of the first chapter). It'll be kind of a half a sequel to this story when I finish it (yes, half a sequel).**

**-An IGPX oneshot, songfic idea. Haha, I have to admit it's a bit freaky and disturbed but, hey, this is MY brain so...yeah. I'll probably write it out soon (like, perhaps soon after I post this chapter) and just see how it turns out. Then you can be the judge. -cringes-**

** All right, hopefully this chapter is better. I'm going on vacation soon but I'll see if I can post another chapter before I leave.**

**Until next time! **


	5. No Man's Land

**CHAPTER 5**  
_No Man's Land_

The pilots' common room was pretty posh. I mean, in order to get in, you had to give your ID over to the security guards waiting at either side of the two revolving doors and wait while they go through this whole procedure to make you think that they are checking to make sure this is really a real ID. Although this procedure may have just been instated recently because of the killing, it was still pretty hilarious to watch. The guards might as well give your ID a flame test or something, or take out this whole portable lab to do experiments on it. It takes them about that long, anyway.

"Aww, check out the fancy shit going down in this place," Jax commented as soon as we stepped in. And he was right. The carpet underfoot was the fluffy kind, in a dark maroonish color, with intricate flower designs curling everywhere. The place was lighted by big scary looking chandeliers up above and little lights on the side of the walls. There were fake potted plants, real potted plants, fake flower arrangements, and real flower arrangements. Then we walked past the indoor pool, then the huge arcade room (that I had to drag Beckem and Jax away from), then the billiards room, then the mini-gym, then a restaurant currently serving dinner, then the bar, then the salon and spa, and then finally, we reached our destination.

"How much did we walk, a mile?" Beckem whispered into my ear.

"About," I replied.

All three of us now stopped to gaze at the beauty in front of us: a TV that was about as big as the wall, which was pretty good sized. From far away, it could almost fool you as a window, since one whole image needed a lot of separate screens to put it together fully, kind of like the one we had in the briefing room to review race footage on (or to see news of a tragic murder). But this one was a lot bigger. There were also a lot of comfortable looking couches and plush seats and even beanbags sprawled about, just seducing us to sit and stay forever. Yeah, I decided that No Man's Land (what Beckem and I liked to call this common room, err, building) was pretty nice after all.

But it was still No Man's Land. Because not one team could call this property their own, and even though we most of the time faked friendliness, we were still inwardly hostile to other teams.

It seems that we weren't the first ones that made it through the maze of temptations to find the big screen. Team Skylark was already there and seated on one of the soft center benches in front of the screen. The bench had no back and so all three of them were sitting up straight, all prim and proper. But I noticed that all of them were wearing black and that one of them was clutching a pretty soggy looking tissue. Instantly, my heart went out to them. To be beaten by a rookie team and then to have your mechanic killed…that'd probably cause me to have a panic breakdown. They were strong compared to me.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the much anticipated race of the day: Team Satomi against Team Sledge Mamma! It is the first race of the season for both of these teams. Which one of them will be victorious? Stick around and find out!" Benjamin Bright was punching those lines for all he was worth. However, none of us sitting rigidly in front of the screen were cracking a smile. As the IGPX intro rolled in, the one they played before every single televised race (although they've changed it a bit over the years to incorporate the new teams and the ones that have left), my eyes wandered from the screen to the people around us. I saw the members of Team Edgeraid saunter up and take seats the farthest away from the screen. Their Forward, Bjorn Johannsen, caught me looking at them curiously and gave me a dirty look. His copilot dog, Sola, was sitting with her head on his thigh, wagging her tail against the ground. I looked away for some less hostile individuals to observe.

Every once in a while, some random IGPX personnel would walk by, chatting with one of their friends. They disappeared from my available observing area quickly and so only held my attention for short periods at a time. Finally, starting to get bored, I heard the catchy upbeat music sanctioned just for IGPX sporting events. It meant that commercials were over. I turned to gaze back at the screen and found a surprise.

We were witnessing history here. For the first time, I think, in his life, Benjamin Bright was somber.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you probably already know, it is with a heavy heart that I bring you this broadcast. I actually didn't know if they'd hold this race today because of a very unfortunate event that happened just this morning. Mechanic Nancy Mathews of Team Skylark…" As Benjamin solemnly repeated the news I had heard already, I couldn't help but get distracted by the small sniffling sounds coming from the Skylark pilots. I mean, I said that my heart went out to them, but I kind of wanted my heart back because they were getting a bit annoying. Yes, I knew it was a difficult time for them, but honestly.

I couldn't help myself. I turned to look at Fantine. And in turning to look at Fantine, I caught sight of someone else that was truthfully much more interesting and good looking, in my opinion.

Cunningham seemed to have been looking at me too. Because when my eyes finally drifted to him, his eyes were already on me. He nodded in greeting but didn't give me anything more. I knew that it was only appropriate for the occasion. But why I _expected_, why I _wanted_ anything more was a mystery to me. I wasn't starting to _like_ him, was I? Oh, now that wouldn't do.

Someone had just _died_ and I was considering if I had feelings for _Cunningham_? Jesus Christ, give me a break.

But I couldn't help but notice that extra thump my chest and heart (now that I had reclaimed it from Skylark) when I spotted him and his fellow pilots, being the last team to join us in watching the two teams racing.

It was odd that all four teams were here, I suddenly reflected to myself. It was like, after the murder, all of us were scared into traveling everywhere in a pack, even if we hated each other's guts.

But it was a good reason to be in a pack.

"All right, so let the excitement begin!" Benjamin said, pointing to the screen with his big index finger. Even though I knew he was trying, I, along with everyone else, could see that Benjamin Bright was not as bright as he could have been tonight.

_**---zoOM---**_

By the time the third lap rolled around, Takeshi was practically a half a lap ahead, River was practically a sobbing mess, Yamma was practically beating up his own teammate (the one that I just mentioned), Liz was practically laughing her head off because this race had turned out to be so easy, the other guy from Sledge Mamma (who I forgot the name of because he was just that unimportant) was practically having a frightful breakdown, and Amy was practically…uh…not quiet.

In a nutshell, Team Sledge Mamma was getting their asses handed to them.

And over on this end, all of us were practically yawning our heads off. Because all Benjamin was saying was, "Oh, and another lethal blow from Satomi's Forward to Sledge Mamma's Defender. That's right, their Defender. Team Sledge Mamma's formation is all out of wack!" or "Wow, and Sledge Mamma Midfielder River Marque is shoved off the main track to the longer alternate route by Satomi's Defender, Liz Ricarro!" or "Come on, Sledge Mamma, GET A GRIP!"

Yawn, bore, snore.

My eyes started to wander again. But honestly, what was I going to _learn_ from this match? River was not performing at all and Takeshi hadn't really done anything to River, other than maybe hit him once and then pass him.

So, I couldn't help myself. I turned my head around slightly and saw that Cunningham was still looking attentively at the race. Well, that was surprising. You'd think he'd be dead from boredom by now.

Slowly, as I was remarking about this to myself, he turned and found me staring. And I hadn't even tried to catch his attention. Because why would I want to?

Now he was jerking his head in small, jerking movements. I gave him the _what? _face and then he mouthed something I couldn't quite understand. But when he jerked his head again, a bit more pronounced this time, I kind of understood what he was saying.

And it freaked me out.

I stood up as quietly and unnoticeably as I could but Jax still whipped his head around. "Where are you going?" he whispered. I sent thanks up to the heavens that this time he actually whispered _quietly_, because usually his whispers are about as loud as Benjamin Bright on a good day.

"I don't feel so good," I whispered back. I placed the back of one of my hands up to my forehead and then pretended like I was fainting. "Headache. I'm going to go back to HQ."

"Oh, okay," Jax said, patting me on the arm and turning back around to watch the race. As I walked away, I noticed that River might just have gotten it together because he finally was initiating an attack against Takeshi. Just catching up to Takeshi would have been an accomplishment to River at this point.

As soon as I had walked out of sight of the TV viewing area, I turned around to see Cunningham striding up to me, cool-as-can-be, his hands stuffed in his pockets. I could feel myself blushing even as I hoped that I wasn't. I turned and continued on my way out of No Man's Land.

"Hold on, Miss Carmarand," the security guard nearest me said, putting an arm out to stop me from going any farther. "I can't let you go anywhere alone, remember? If you are going back to your team building, I will escort you there."

"No, that won't be necessary," Cunningham's voice was gentle but firm at the same time as he addressed the security guard. I turned and saw him standing there, the slight night breeze ruffling his brown hair. "She's with me."

"Um, okay," the guard said, dropping his arm back down to his side. I caught him giving me a weird look as I walked over to Cunningham and we walked down the stairs together. It did seem a bit odd, didn't it? Even to me, this whole scene was kind of…not real.

"So, where are we going?" I asked Cunningham as we walked away from the dull roaring behind us, coming from the track. Before he could respond, a much louder rumbling zoomed past. Without turning, I knew it was the mechs, racing toward what had to be almost the end of the race. After a minute or so, after all the mechs had raced by, Cunningham turned to me.

"Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. Where do you want to go?"

"I kind of want to go ice skating, to tell you the truth," Cunningham said, looking down at his feet as if he were embarrassed.

"There's a rink around here?" I asked him. I was careful not to walk too close to him. I mean, I didn't know what this was yet. This meaning _us._

"Are you kidding?" he replied with a smile. "This is the party city. You could probably find everything here. I bet if you dug deep enough, you'd find a Disneyland."

"That's pretty cool. Want to go there?"

"No, let's go ice skating."

* * *

**A/N:** **Well, well, well. I am back. With a new chapter. It's not that great of a chapter. But I'm really starting to like this story. Since I'm, well, writing it, that's a good thing. Ha.**

**So thanks to my three reviewers for the last chapter. You guys are the faithful that everyone loves and ultimately thanks in the end. So thank you, faithful.**

**In other news, I have decided I like writing the races more than I like writing what comes in between. It's just good old me coming out. Action over romance. But I'm trying hard in the romance department too, this time.**

**Well, then. Until next time. **


	6. An Ice Skating Affair

**CHAPTER 6  
**_An Ice Skating Affair_

First, at Cunningham's suggestion, we had to stop off at a small shop to get sunglasses. It was stupid, getting sunglasses at night, but it was to put on during ice skating so that fans didn't go nuts. Then we walked to the ice rink, which was closer than I thought. Cunningham was right, you _could_ find every form of entertainment imaginable here.

"Been ice skating before?" Cunningham asked me when we were on the ice, skating side by side at a leisurely pace.

"Oh yeah. Loads," I said, watching as little kids chased each other on the ice. "I used to go ice skating with my parents or my friends and then pretend I was a IGPX mech. I would go as fast as I could around and around the ice rink. But then, of course, I'd always fall."

Cunningham laughed. "That kind of sounds like me when I was young. I used to do that same thing."

We didn't say anything to each other for a long time. We just skated, noticing and sometimes enjoying each others presence, while we watched couples hold hands and try to skate without falling, kids running into walls because that was the only way they knew how to stop, and chain spills when one person fell which caused another person to fall which caused another person to fall…

I kept on having this nagging feeling, though, that I shouldn't be here, ice skating, with Cunningham no less. The Satomi/Sledge Mamma race had to have been over by now. Was it possible that they had discovered that I had lied? Would they go out looking for me?

I realized that sneaking off right now wasn't the smartest thing to do. What with the whole killer paranoia floating around in the air. But I was with Cunningham. But they didn't know that.

I tried to push these worries aside, but they just resurfaced again and again. Finally, I turned to tell Cunningham that we, or at least I, should be getting back. Just as I opened my mouth, a voice came on over the P.A. system. I knew there was no way I could beat this guy with amplification on his side, so I waited until he was finished.

"Skaters, now it's time for your favorite part of general session, the couple skate! If you do not have a partner, please exit the ice at this moment. In a couple of minutes, you will be able to get back on the ice. Thank you!"

_Aw, fuck you_, I thought to the announcer guy. How embarrassing. And then the lights dimmed, making it almost impossible to see with sunglasses on. Great. I slid the sunglasses off my eyes and placed them on my head. Cunningham watched me do so with raised eyebrows. "Well, I don't want to crash," I told him. He shrugged and then took off his sunglasses too.

We went into the final turn before we would have to exit. I was already drifting toward the side, watching as people holding hands skated past, when Cunningham said, "You're getting off?"

"You're not?" I asked in return, and also in a little surprise. He skated toward me and was just about to say something when someone pushed into me from behind. I was sent toppling into Cunningham and scrambling to regain my balance. I was planning on yelling something angry and loud to whoever had pushed me, but then I realized that Cunningham was holding both my wrists in his hands. I looked up at him and he smiled.

"That was close," he said, smiling at me. "Good thing I have such great balance."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, what a great thing."

"Anyway," Cunningham continued, one of his hands sliding from my wrist to my hand, "I think it was some higher being's way of telling you that you can't get off the ice yet." _Well, duh,_ I couldn't help thinking. _Now that you are holding my hand, getting off is a little trickier._

"Very funny," I said to him in a not amused voice. I noticed that even though both of our hands were cold, his were still a little warmer than mine. Not fair.

I looked down at my skates, or at least, that was going to be my excuse if he asked. Really, I was sneaking glances at our connected hands. Looking at them gave me a little shot of excitement, although I still somehow felt guilty. When I had had my fill of thinking, _I'm actually holding hands with Alex Cunningham!_ I looked up.

And there was Michiru Satomi. She was staring straight at me with cold eyes on the other side of the clear plastic barrier that separated the rink from the walkway on the outside of it. It was kind of eerie.

"Hey," I said, gently pulling on Cunningham's hand to get his attention, "is that Ms. Satomi over there?"

"Where?" Cunningham asked, looking up from his feet. I turned back around to look at where she had been.

"Right the…" I trailed off as I realized that she was gone. How'd she do that? "No way. She disappeared. I could have sworn that she was there just a second ago."

"Are you sure? Is the cold air getting to your head?" Cunningham joked. I scowled at him and poked him in the side softly with my elbow.

"I'm not crazy, I promise," I said with a smile. By the time "couple skate" was over, I had forgotten about her.

_**---zoOM---**_

"We are such delinquents," Cunningham said as we arrived in front of my pretty much silent team building. I didn't even know how late it was, but it felt late.

"No, you are a delinquent. I am a perfect angel," I told him, observing the security guards watching us.

"Oh, okay," Cunningham said, sounding as if he believed me not one bit. Suddenly, he pulled me into him. After a disorienting second, I realized what this was. A hug. A long one.

When we pulled back, Cunningham looked down at me again and tapped me on the nose with a finger. "Keep this between you and me, okay? It's our secret."

"What, going ice skating?" I asked in a joking tone. He nodded solemnly. I couldn't help but half-laugh. "Okay, whatever you say." We stood there for a second longer, the moment growing a bit awkward until I said, "Well, I better get inside."

"Yeah…" he said softly.

"Bye," I said and then walked away before things got weirder. As I stepped into the lobby, I heard the security guard say, "Mr. Cunningham, I'll walk you back to your building," before the double doors slid shut behind me. I allowed myself a small smile before I stepped into an elevator.

**_---zoOM---_**

Confrontations always suck.

"Where've you been?" Beckem asked me as soon as I stepped into my floor from the elevator. I had been nodding off in the elevator, so it took a moment to get awake and oriented again and then another moment to figure out what he was asking.

"None of your stupid business," I said, tired and, because I was tired, cranky.

"You are our Forward, Lotus. I think it is my business," he shot back. Ohh, he was a smart one.

"Give it a rest, Beckem. Just be happy I didn't get shot on the way home, okay?"

"That is not something to joke about," he said to me, his voice dangerously low. "To tell you the truth, that's what I was worried about."

"Well, you can quit it now," I said, scooting past him to try to get to the door to my room. "What are you doing up so late anyway?"

"Waiting for you," he said.

"Would you cut it out? It's like you're spying on me or something." I gave him an annoyed look before I stepped in front of my bedroom door and the door slid open by itself. Ah, the wonders of technology.

"I just want to know where you went, Lotus. Is that a crime?"

"Yes, very much so. Good night!" I said, waving him a cheerful goodbye before my door slid shut, blocking him out. When he was gone out of my view, I went to my bed and collapsed on it, sighing.

Beckem could be such a pest at times. And yet somehow, I felt guilty. Guilty about this whole Cunningham affair. Why?

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**A/N:**** So, the big line divider thingy isn't working. Just to piss me off, I suppose. But I felt it was time to update, especially since this chapter was like screaming, "FiLLER!"**

**So yeah, don't shoot me. Just read it and patiently wait like good little readers while I make it through another couple of months of life to post another.**

**Reviewers are cool, nonreviewers are almost as cool.**

**Thank you to my big 3.**

**I'm out 'til next time.  
**


	7. Workout

**CHAPTER 7  
**_Workout_

I was up before any of them, doing a build workout on the treadmill. The speed of it was still pretty moderate when Jax stepped in, sporting athletic clothing and a yawn. He gave me a groggy glance and shook his head slowly. "What time did you get up?"

"Uh, probably around 6:15."

Jax shook his head harder. "You are such a nut case."

I smiled. "At least you beat Beck."

"Well, he was up late yesterday."

My smile dissolved. "Yeah, I know."

Jax wasn't awake enough to catch my dark tone. He just nodded slightly and went into the dim room with the mats for sparring. I heard him yawn loudly again before I heard his feet pad onto the mat. Then I heard his feet making regular thuds. Jumping jacks, I guessed.

A couple minutes later, Jax was out of the mat room and back into the weight room where he turned on the treadmill next to me, programming it to the same build workout. Mine was already on a small jog when he started walking on his.

"Man, that race yesterday between Satomi and Sledge Mamma was brutal," he commented.

"Yeah, I know."

"I don't know what possessed Sledge Mamma to suck so bad."

"Especially considering they are such big rivals."

"Yeah," Jax agreed, his voice trailing off as his treadmill increased its speed a little. "Do me a favor, Lotus, and hit me if I ever race like that, all right?"

"Will do," I said with a small laugh. "But you have to do the same for me."

"All right, it's a deal," Jax said.

We exercised in silence for a while. My treadmill had advanced to a solid run when Beckem stepped into the room, blinking. I looked down immediately at my treadmill's digital screen, telling me that I had one more level before I was on a sprint. Jax greeted Beckem from beside me.

"Hey, dude. Glad to see you. Get enough sleep?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said, his voice quiet and unsure. After a while of silence, I looked up and saw that Beckem hadn't moved. He was just standing there, looking at me. I gave him a small smile and then turned back to my treadmill.

Jax seemed to notice something was wrong. He piped up with, "Well, aren't you going to go and do some stretches before you start?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going." Beckem's footsteps receded as he walked away.

"Are you being your regular self or did something happen when I was asleep?" Jax asked me the minute Beckem was out of earshot.

"Both," I said simply. I could see Jax frown at me out of the corner of my eye.

We didn't really talk throughout our whole workout session. This wasn't unusual though. We liked to zone off into our own worlds when we were exercising. It also helped us concentrate. I focused more on my own body when we were quiet. The only break in the silence was when Addy stuck her head into the gym area, nodding at us when she spotted all three of us in here. Then she walked away and silence came back.

I was in the room with the mats and the walls that were mirrors when Jax announced that he'd finished his exercise for today. Both Beckem and I called out goodbye to him before returning back to our training. I dropped down onto the blue mats to do a little stretching before I went over to the rack holding a variety of bokuto and shinai swords. I picked up my regular bokuto sword, a wooden one, and traveled back to the center of the mirrored wall in front of me. The mat's plastic felt cool on my bare feet. I took a few deep breaths before I stepped forward and delivered a precise strike downward, so starting the basic first kata learned in kendo.

All three of us, Jax, Beckem, and I, had taken a kendo class while we were training to be pilots in the lower leagues of the IGPX. Jax had dropped out after the first few session, claiming that "it was boring". But Beckem and I had stayed resolutely, intrigued by the idea. And so we had moved up in the levels, becoming quite good before we stopped and focused all our energy on perfecting our racing. Now it was just an exercise tool, to keep our fighting instincts and technique sharp off the track. Because that, claimed Addy, was the key to keeping our fighting instincts and technique sharp on the track.

And after all this time, I still remembered. I drilled through all the katas I had learned every time I stepped foot in our mini-gym. It was routine for me.

I was in the middle of my third when Beckem stepped into the room. I stopped for a second, watching as he went over to the rack without looking at me. Then I continued, watching my form closely in the mirror. Well, that was my excuse. I was actually watching as Beckem selected his bokuto and hefted it in his hand before he started to walk toward me. I stepped to the side, turning to face front again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Beckem watching me as I finished my third kata. When I started the fourth, he joined in, both of us moving in perfect unison and not talking.

All the while, I was thinking, _well, this isn't awkward. NOT._

I had the fleeting wish that Jax was still in here with us. Sometimes he'd still pick up his wooden sword and do the most basic kata with us. Or he'd pick up his bamboo one and spar with us for a little while, just pretty much flailing around and trying to stay in the game before the other knocked his sword out of his grip. In any case, he made the atmosphere lighter.

Lighter than now.

We were in the middle of whatever number kata, I forgot, when Beckem just stopped. I continued, watching from the mirror as he went back to the rack and slid his bokuto in before taking his shinai sword out. "Lotus," he called. I turned and watched him slide out my shinai sword with his other hand. I transferred my bokuto sword into my left hand, knowing instinctively that he was going to throw the shinai to me.

I stepped forward and caught my shinai sword, gently throwing him back my bokuto. He caught it with ease, slipped it into the rack and then came forward onto the mat. I backed up to give him space, immediately settling down into a fighter's stance.

"Ready?" he asked me, one eyebrow cocked in question. I nodded.

"Let's go."

Even though we had just given each other the go ahead, we still just stood there for a moment, calculating the other. Then we both stepped forward and our swords clashed with a loud clack.

We moved all around the mat, trying not to step out onto the hardwood floor, always pushing the other back when we got too close. Our spars were always intense and quiet, the only sounds coming from our breathing, our feet sliding on the mat, and our swords coming together. We were always totally focused into the fight, not paying attention to anything else that might have been going on.

Finally, at one point, he struck out at me and I bent over, ducking from his blow. I swung my sword at his sword powerfully, only to find him able to meet it stiffly, not giving way. Then we continued on, dancing around each other.

Finally, his opening came. He managed to get behind me and reached out to grab the arm that held my sword with his hand. I spun away from his sword arm as far as I could but he wouldn't let go. Beckem was good at that, suddenly getting behind you when you weren't paying attention…even if you thought you had been paying attention.

We both were sweating and breathing pretty hard. Finally, I built up enough courage to look him in the face. He was frowning as he stared at my sword's point. Then he finally said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I asked quietly.

"Everything," he responded, meeting my gaze. "I don't know what's happening to me."

I let my sword drop, a sign that I was giving up. It made a dull thud on the mat, interrupting the silence. Beckem was still holding onto me.

"Don't worry about it," I finally told him. "Fame and glory changes everyone."

"You know it's not that," he said, killing my attempt at being lighthearted about it. "Although I can pretend that's it if you want." He dropped my arm and I bent to pick up my shaft of bamboo. Both of us went over to the rack to slide them back into their places.

"Then what is it?" I asked him.

"I can't tell you. Sorry," he said, before he walked out of the room, leaving me standing and watching the dust particles swirl in the air by myself.

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**A/N: This is a _more_ important filler chapter.**


	8. A Little More Personal

**CHAPTER 8  
**_A Little More Personal_

The bright sunshine and warm air outside told me that it was a perfect day to watch a race or race in a race. However, I was to engage in neither activity at the moment. And even though I could hear the sound of the fans screaming and the sound of Benjamin Bright's broadcast booming through the air, I walked away from the impending race between Edgeraid and Velshtein.

Velshtein. This race I probably should have watched more than anything. Because Cunningham had probably been watching my race. But…

The beautiful streets of this racing city were different in the daylight. Much more cheerful and carefree. They were also pretty much empty because everyone was at the race. I walked along the streets lined with shops and outdoor restaurants and cafes, buying myself a smoothie at one of them. Then I continued my stroll, admiring also the cleanliness of this little town.

As I walked past one particularly large restaurant with an outdoor eating area that was enclosed with a low iron fence I spotted a familiar form at one of the tables. Even in sunglasses he was a dead giveaway. Bright red jacket, grayish hair with that one little spot always sticking up.

"Takeshi Jin of Team Satomi," I said, resting my elbows on the fence and watching as Takeshi looked up from his food, confused. Then he turned and looked at me, realization dawning on his face.

"Lotus Carmarand of Team Platinum, is that you?" he asked me with a smile. I nodded and smiled back. "Here, have a seat," he offered, gesturing to the chair opposite him at the table. I looked around subtlety before I slipped over the fence and sat down in the chair. Meanwhile, he took another bite of what looked to be a chilidog.

"So, you aren't watching the Velshtein and Edgeraid race?" I asked him. He waited until he was finished chewing and had swallowed before he responded.

"Nah. Andrei is taping it for me though, for me to watch later," he said pleasantly. "And how about you?"

I nodded. "It's crazy how alike our coaches are. Addy is taping it for me too. But unlike you, I don't have a choice about watching it later." I made a face at an invisible Addy. Takeshi laughed a little.

"Well, I want to watch it," Takeshi said after a while. "Velshtein is still an enigma after all these seasons."

"You mean, three seasons."

"Yeah," he said, kind of drifting off into his own world. "Wow, it seems like it's been forever since we first got in the IG1s as rookies."

"I was already training to race then," I told him, going back in my mind to the past. "I remember watching that whole season on television. Team Satomi was my inspiration."

"Why, thank you," he said, giving me a grin.

We lapsed into comfortable silence as we both just soaked in everything around us. For some reason, we were totally comfortable not only with the silence, but with each other. It almost felt like we had been friends for ages. It didn't seem awkward to me that I was hanging around with Takeshi, just the two of us, like it did when I was with Cunningham. With Cunningham, it felt like I was bluntly doing something that was a no-no. But with Takeshi, that guilt just wasn't that prevalent.

"I don't know what to do about her," he suddenly said, sighing and slumping back into his chair.

"Who?" I asked, feeling a little stupid. I had just been thinking about how much it felt like we were old friends. And then he says something, and I have no idea what he's talking about.

"Fantine," he said then, which totally took me by surprise. It never even occurred to me that he'd be thinking about her.

While I searched in the sunlit air for something to say, he continued, saving me the energy. "I've been thinking about that day when we were talking on the track and you asked me if I was over her yet. That really got me to thinking about it." He paused, poking at the lettuce on his plate that his chilidog had come on. "And I realized that I'm not." Then he looked up at me, his eyes expectant behind his green tinted sunglasses.

I honestly didn't know what he expected me to say. I wasn't a therapist or a psychologist. "Uhh…" I said, fumbling for time. Finally I decided on, "Why do you say that?"

"Because," Takeshi answered confidently, "whenever I see her, I still get nervous and all that. Besides that day, when you and Skylark were racing, I saw her mech fighting with you on the TV screen and suddenly I realized I missed her. The thought just came to me. It was like something just turned on in my brain and I realized what I had lost."

We were both quiet for a moment as I contemplated his words and his sudden outburst. Then he said, "You must think I'm completely stupid for telling you all about this."

"No, Takeshi," I said in a serious tone. I looked down at the table as he looked up at me. "I don't want to say this to you, but I feel I have to. I'm pretty sure after that race last season between you guys and Skylark, Fantine was sure about her decision. I saw all these tabloids sprouting rumors about how Fantine was seeing other celebrities and such…"

"Which are only rumors," Takeshi said determinedly.

"Right, which are only rumors. But the point here is, if she's over you, you should try to get over her. I don't think there will ever be a chance that she'll come back to you, Takeshi."

Takeshi looked sadly down at the white tabletop. The little sprout of his hair that always stuck out seemed also to be drooping. "I'm sorry for saying that," I said gently, after a while.

"No, no," Takeshi immediately refuted, looking up at me with a forced smile. "I can't be mad at you for only telling the truth." He looked down at the table one last time before his smile widened almost into something real. "Thanks."

At that, I couldn't help but smile back. "Anytime."

Takeshi grinned and stood up, stretching. "All right, with all that awkward stuff said, let's go get some candy." He gestured to his right. "The shop is right next door. They have the best lollipops ever."

"Sounds good to me," I said, standing up as well. "Let's go."

_**---zoOM---**_

I clicked the black pen in my hand over and over as I pushed it against the desk I was sitting at. "Wow, what a slam delivered by Team Velshtein's legendary Forward Alex Cunningham!" Benjamin gushed into the microphone reverently. I yawned, leaning my cheek into my cupped hand that was being propped up by my elbow. _Yeah, yeah, yeah, big deal._

The fact was that Team Velshtein's full potential could not be seen in a race against Team Edgeraid, no offense to Team Edgeraid. They were still a very tough team and would be a major obstacle in the season, but only to us rookies. And maybe to, like, Skylark and Sledge Mamma. To Velshtein…eh…not so much.

The yellow pad of lined paper in front of me was almost entirely blank and the race was already getting into its third lap. I watched as Bjorn successfully executed some dodging moves as Cunningham struck out a flurry of punches and kicks. Bjorn managed to worm his way so that he was in front of Cunningham, skating backward to face him.

Then I noticed something that wasn't right. I was wide-awake now, leaning in my seat as if that would help me see better. Bjorn was trying to maintain his position. Why? He was just going to get hit harder and harder. By moving around Cunningham constantly and dodging, he'd have a better chance at staying in for the rest of the race and possibly win a respectable position. But like this, he was just getting battered.

Finally, I remembered something I had read online about Team Edgeraid once when I was researching all the teams in the IG1s. "Very teamwork oriented." Were they showing that now? Was this actually a small trap?

"Whoa, folks! It seems like Team Edgeraid is not out of the race yet!" Edgeraid's Midfielder suddenly entered the screen, shooting out thin wires from the mech's arm. The numerous little silver strings crisscrossed themselves around Cunningham's mech. It seemed that Cunningham hadn't quite gotten what was happening to him…until, of course, the Midfielder pulled on the wires.

"WOW! Look at that face-planter! How is Cunningham going to get out of this trap?" I watched as sparks fizzed all around Cunningham's mech that was scraping the track painfully. "And look! Team Velshtein's Midfielder just whizzed past, not even stopping to help his teammate! This is getting to be an insane race!"

I felt like clubbing Ben over the head. Well, of course their Midfielder wouldn't want to help Cunningham. He knew that Cunningham was capable of getting out of his fix by himself. Besides, the Midfielder was going to try and catch Bjorn, who had skated off ahead in a temporary happy frenzy.

I jotted down "TEAM EDGERAID" on my yellow pad of paper and then underneath it wrote "teamwork", "thin wires that shoot out of arm", and "get alone". Under the Velshtein column that I had already made, I wrote "keep FAR apart from each other; prevent from helping one another".

"But wait, folks, I think Cunningham has found a way out of his deadly situation!" My head snapped up, interested. I watched as Cunningham managed to flip himself over, so that now he was skidding on the track floor on his back. Then, slowly and shakily, his mech's arms reached up. They flailed for a moment, and I was puzzled as to what they were supposed to do. But in a moment I found out.

Cunningham's mech's hands closed over the wires and then pulled as hard as they could. Edgeraid's Midfielder was jerked into the air, even sailing right over Cunningham. Then Cunningham pushed himself off the ground with his mech's forearms, stabbing the Midfielder right in the gut with his mech's feet. "Ooh," I commented, wincing for the Midfielder even at my desk. "That has gotta hurt."

"OH MY GOD, folks! I have NEVER ever seen anything like it! That has gotta hurt!" Benjamin yelled into his mike. For once, I agreed with him.

Team Edgeraid's Midfielder, Bella DeMarco (I suddenly remembered her name), flew forward as Cunningham rocketed himself back up to a standing position. Bella's mech landed face first on the track and skid to a stop on the side of the track, macinary littering the track everywhere. She disappeared from the screen as Cunningham zoomed past.

"What a recovery for Team Velshtein's star Forward. And what a blow for Team Edgeraid!"

I wrote down under Edgeraid: "if entangled in wires, find them, grab them, and pull them".

That was pretty much the only thing worth watching in the race. Bjorn got slugged in the end anyway. Velshtein pulled an easy victory out of the hat.

I was about to turn the screens off when I saw that the pilot interview was coming up. For some reason, I let the taped race play on, my fingers running over the buttons on the controls. Amid the rabid fans, Team Velshtein got out of their mechs and made its way to the winner's area: a stage on which Benjamin Bright assaulted you after a race.

Ben asked the pilots the usual questions like, oh, was this race hard for you, what'd you think of that sneaky trap Edgeraid pulled, blah blah blah-blah-blah. I kept my eyes on Cunningham the whole time. Even though he had just finished a race and he was tired and sweaty and all, he still looked really nice.

And then finally, even as the pilots were turning away to go back to the locker rooms, Benjamin said, "Oh and one last thing for Cunningham." Cunningham turned wearily, looking a little annoyed. I bet all of us pilots had been taught to smile for the camera, even if your patience was wearing thin. Well, I thought that Cunningham's patience now looked like it had a few holes in it already.

"There have been random eye-witness accounts and rumors circulating about you and the rookie Forward from Team Platinum, Lotus Carmarand. What is going on with these claims and are they true? What is going on between you two?"

I nearly choked on my own spit. _Okay…now, Benny, this is getting personal._

Then I watched as Cunningham smiled, reached over to pat Bright on the arm, and say to him and to the microphone. "I think it's best, Ben, if you stuck to commentating. Thank you."

And with that he turned and walked away.

* * *

**A/N:**** Felt the random urge to update. Plus, it's a three day weekend and I have time. This is like, therapy to me.**

** A longer chapter, to reward all you readers that stuck with me through the short ones.**

**I hope this was a little step above a filler. Maybe. As it seems I'm good at writing fillers. Just keep telling yourself that they are important to the story.**

**Love you guys! 'Til next time...  
**


	9. Death Dog

**CHAPTER 9  
**_Death Dog_

I could still hear the sound of air whistling by me at over 350 speeds while I was in my mech. Even though tonight's night practice had ended, it felt as if I still was sitting in the pilot's seat, the controls were still rumbling under my fingers. I walked along the track, hands in my sweatshirt pocket, breathing in deeply the night air.

It was Sunday. Tomorrow was Monday. Our next race was Thursday. Against Satomi.

The thought of it was scary. And yet it was somehow satisfying.

"Hey, Lotus," I heard Addy's voice say to me from the entrance to the track. I turned and she was standing there in a full-length coat. "We better start heading back if we want to keep curfew."

Oh yes. Curfew. The newest feature the IGPX officials thought would make us safer from the killer that was still at large. The curfew was midnight. And I could find so many reasons why this would not help one bit.

I started to walk toward her slowly, not wanting to leave the track. I loved being out here at night even more than I loved being out here in the morning. I had this ongoing daydream where I'd be out here and the sky would not be totally black, but dark bluish. And the lights would be on from the city and from the team's buildings but not on the track. And then somehow Cunningham would find me here and he would join me and…

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, Lotus."

"Me?" I asked my coach, totally still lost in my daydream.

"Yes, you." We left the track and headed toward our team building, which was still a ways away. "It's probably an awkward subject to touch, but we need to hit it."

"Okay," I said, thinking that I was ready for anything she might say to me.

"I watched the interview Benjamin Bright had with Team Velshtein after their race a couple days ago."

"And?" I asked her, not fully in the conversation.

"Cunningham seemed unwilling to tell everyone what was going on between you two. But I thought you'd like to tell me."

I involuntarily froze in my step, suddenly realizing where this was going. Oh, god. This _was_ awkward. "N-Nothing," I said, fumbling for words. "We're just friends."

"Just friends…" she repeated.

"Right," I confirmed with a firm nod of my head. After a while I sighed and said, "Okay, let's just say even if I wanted us to be any more than friends, we wouldn't be right now. This whole thing is very…vague. I don't even exactly know what's happening between us. Okay?" I knew it didn't make any sense, but Addy seemed to understand.

"And is it going to affect you in a race? Our race against Velshtein will probably be even bigger than the upcoming one against Satomi."

I shook my head resolutely. "In no way will this whole thing affect my performance in that race. Don't worry."

Addy smiled. We had already reached the lobby of our team's building. "Nice try," she said to me with a smile. Then she turned and took the available elevator. That left me alone and puzzled, staring after her and wondering what that meant.

_**---zoOM---**_

Tuesday. Clips of Satomi racing go right through my pupils out the back of my head. I was now immune to them.

Lectures and analysis and simulations. They were heard and thought and done with.

I knew I wasn't ready for the race. But I already tired of Satomi. I might as well buy one of their team jackets, put on face paint, and wave a flag with a big yellow S on it. That was how much of Satomi I got.

Tuesday afternoon.

"Lotus, are you listening?" Addy asked me, waving her hand in my face. I jerked _fully_ awake to discover Jax, Beckem, Addy, and Brad all looking at me inquisitively. Was something important going on? Oops.

I looked up to see layouts of Satomi's three mech's on the screens in front of me. That's what we had been doing…

"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening," I said, trying to give Addy my best I'm-focused-and-ready-to-work face. Addy straightened up, tapping a finger on the waist of her jeans.

"Uh-huh. I'm not convinced," she said to me, looking…well, not convinced. "I think it's time to take a break."

"Really?" Jax asked hopefully, his eyes immediately brightening. Even Beckem seemed to wake up a little bit more at the thought of a break from this stuff.

"Well, I'm not going to get anywhere with you three napping," Addy complained, giving Brad a look that said _kids these days, tsk tsk tsk_. I was pretty sure I saw Brad give her an understanding one back. "So…out. All three of you. I suggest you all stick together and do something outside that is active. Just don't get killed or get run over by cars. We still do need you." Addy smiled as Jax did a mini victory dance in his seat and immediately got up.

Still a little in a daze, I slowly got up from my desk and went outside into the hallway. Jax was already in the elevator, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor of it. Beckem and I trudged in. I yawned. The door slid shut and we started to move down to ground level.

"So, what do you want to do?" Jax asked.

"Actually, I'd like sleeping right now," I said.

"We could go to the arcade," Beckem suggested hopefully.

"YEAH!" Jax agreed enthusiastically. "Lezgo!"

"Well, you guys go. I'm staying here," I said resolutely.

"Come on, Lotus. You know you want to play some DDR. You're really good at DDR," Beckem said.

"Eh," I said.

"YEAH! DDR!" Jax said. I was afraid he'd start jumping up and down, causing the whole elevator to plummet into doom. Thankfully at that moment, the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open.

And thankfully at that moment, my cell phone that was lodged in my jeans' pocket started to ring, playing its painfully bright tune and vibrating against my thigh. I jumped a little, not expecting the vibrating.

"Well, look, what do you know, I have to take this call," I said, giving Beckem a smile. "See you guys later."

"Come on, Beckem. Let's just go. Lotus can do whatever she wants. Come on, come on. Arcadeeee…"

Beckem gave me one last look before he disappeared from view of the sliding glass double doors of our team building. I resisted the urge to make a face at him. He needed to lighten up sometimes. For goodness sakes, if you are going to suggest going to an arcade, at least look the part.

I finally looked down at my cell phone and nearly jumped again at the caller ID.

_Alexander Cunningham._

_**---zoOM---**  
_

An hour later, I emerged from my "room" much better looking than I was before (hopefully). In the hall, I made one last check of my purse, making sure all I needed was there. Then I slipped on some sunglasses and planned on going out…

Who would I meet at this opportune time other than Addy Kelly? The elevator door slid open and I walked forward into it just as Addy was running out. We collided and fell, her sliding back into the elevator and me sliding back a little down the hall. "Hi…Addy," I said tentatively. Addy was in one of her volatile moods at the moment, I could tell. One little thing and then BAM, she'd explode.

"There you are!" she said breathlessly. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Many people do these days," I said under my breath, glaring at the ground as I got up.

"There's been another death," Addy gushed out, apparently not hearing my comment. I forgot about it too as I froze at those words. Who could it be? Suddenly, I could feel my blood turning cold. I knew people now in the IGPX. They were my friends. What if something happened to them? Takeshi? Maybe it was Cunningham after he got off the phone with me? What if it was Fantine? How would Takeshi take it? Just thinking about all of it made me almost cry.

It couldn't be Beckem or Jax, I reasoned, trying to calm my panicking brain. If it had been one of them, Addy would have been more haywire. She wouldn't have been the bomb about to go off. She would have been the bomb that already went off.

We both rushed to the briefing room, where we could hear the noise of the TV on in the hallway. I was just as paranoid as she was now. Who? Who? WHO?

"Tragedy has struck once again in the IGPX community. Officials estimate that this morning at the Johannsen house…" –_it's Bjorn!_ I thought— "…Sola was kidnapped from the backyard where she was taking her morning stretch. Bjorn reported her missing as soon as he woke and couldn't find her around the house. Only a few hours ago was her body found inside of a toolbox in the Edgeraid warehouse." I felt horrible when my heart relieved itself of the panicked state it had been in just a few minutes ago.

"Investigators believe she might have been poisoned in some way, as there are no obvious wounds on the body. They also say that if Team Edgeraid had managed to find Sola sooner, she might have been able to be saved, but they were just too late. Bob, back to you."

Mr. Karlen had a hold on the control this time. He breathed in and out deeply, his face paler than usual. Finally, in the spasm of silence that was just screaming to be broken, he murmured, "What is this sport coming to?"

Addy and I both contemplated on that for a moment. Then I tried to sneak out of the room. Addy caught me though, when I was a few steps from the elevator.

"Where do you think you are going?"

I turned around and gave her a falsely innocent smile. "I, um, I'm going to go to No—I mean, the pilots' common room to tell Beckem and Jax."

"I'll go with you," she said, stepping toward me.

"No, no," I said, backing up toward the elevator. "Don't worry about it. I'll be okay. You must have other more important things to worry about. I'll handle this, okay?"

To my relief, she nodded and turned to go the other way. "Be careful, Lotus," she said over her shoulder as she walked away. Elated with my lying skills, I ran into the elevator before she could change her mind and went down to ground floor.

* * *

**A/N:**** It's almost been a month, so I thought it'd be cool to update again.**

** I got FOUR reviews last time, instead of three. That was uber exciting. Thank you so much.**

**Hope you liked it. This one isn't quite as filler-ish as the rest.**

**Until next time...  
**


	10. Dance Dance Revolution

**CHAPTER 10  
**_Dance Dance Revolution_

"Did you hear about it?" I asked Cunningham as soon as I saw him in front of the candy store Takeshi and I had went to a few days ago. He must have thought it was odd that I wanted to meet in front of a candy store, but he didn't say anything.

Cunningham just nodded, looking solemn. But then he smiled at me. "I was just glad it wasn't you."

I smiled back, happiness bubbling up in me. Usually, a wave of happiness would be cool at first, but then become sickening because I knew that in a moment it would fade again. But this happiness was probably as sweet as the candy in the shop we were standing in front of. "And I was just glad it wasn't you," I said in response. Cunningham's smile seemed to grow wider.

At my insistence, we went inside and had to get some candy. I got some watermelon gummies that were sour and sweet and that looked like tiny watermelon slices. Cunningham took forever to pick out something, but he finally decided on a bar of chocolate and a bunch of small lollipops. I happily popped a watermelon gummy into my mouth as we walked out of the candy shop.

"So, where are we going today?" I asked Cunningham. He looked very nice today. He had chosen to wear something other than his blue-collared button down shirt and slacks, as that would have made him too easy to identify amongst the abundance of fans. Instead, he had on a plain black shirt and pants. It was simple, but it was nice.

"Well, there's a carnival that came into town recently for the IGPX season. We could go there," he said, opening up the silver foil on his chocolate bar and breaking off a piece for me. I took it and popped it into my mouth. I knew that by the end of the day, I would have the feeling that my teeth were rotting, but that was fine for today.

"Okay," I said, not really caring where we went. As long as I was with him, I would be…

"YOU!"

Both of us jerked our heads up at the loud accusation, wondering which unlucky person it was directed to. Surprisingly, we found that it was us that was being pointed to by Bjorn's index finger. He crossed the street in a hurry, narrowly missing being run over by a car and got right up in Cunningham's face.

"You killed her, didn't you, you fag! I'm going to get you for this. I'm going to kill you like you killed her, believe it…"

"BJORN!" I heard a female voice call out from across the street. There was Edgeraid's Midfielder, Bella DeMarco. She was looking a bit ticked off at Bjorn. When she had made sure there were no cars present, she marched across the street.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Johannsen," Cunningham said coolly, which made Bjorn even crazier.

"You killed Sola. I know it. Murderer, murderer!" he screamed, drawing stares from people around us, which (thank goodness) wasn't that many individuals. "You were jealous and you killed her. You knew that would hurt me the most. You are a jerk…I'm going to strangle you right now!"

Bjorn lunged, hands out to close around Cunningham's throat. Cunningham stepped smoothly to the side, hands in his pockets, not even caring. It turned out he didn't even need to do that. Bella came just in time and caught a hold of the crazy man by the back of the jacket collar.

"You _dunce_," she scolded him. "Stop trying to blame every person you see!"

"GET OFF ME, WOMAN! I KNOW THAT CUNNINGHAM KILLED—"

"We lost to them, idiot!" Bella roared back, jerking him a little bit away from us by the collar she held onto. "Why would he need to kill her if we LOST to them?"

Bjorn thought about this, silent for the first time since we saw him. Bella pushed him so that he was facing the street. Then she leaned into us and whispered, "Sorry about that. He's been insane ever since he found out that Sola was gone. It makes sense but whenever something like that happens to Bjorn," she rolled her eyes, "he goes crazy."

"Don't worry about it," Cunningham said, giving her a slight smile. She looked at him, her eyes going up and down over his whole body appreciatively. I could feel the urge to clench my fists and growl at her. _He's mine, "you dunce"._

"Come on, Bjorn, time to go," Bella said, steering Bjorn back across the street safely. Their bickering voices faded slowly as they walked away.

Cunningham broke off another piece of chocolate and popped it into his mouth. "He always cracks me up."

_**---zoOM---**_

How he had convinced me that this was a good idea, I would never know.

"Here," Cunningham said, handing me a little round plate with a huge sandwich on it.

"Uh, thanks, but I don't think I can eat all this," I said, holding the plate up to my line of sight to view it from the side. Let's see, there was lettuce, tomatoes, some kind of cheese, roast beef, mayonnaise, and, well, bread. White bread. Geez, he was good.

"That's okay," Cunningham replied, sitting across from me on the window seat that was built into the huge bay window of their mansion. I placed my plate of food on my lap and leaned my back against the cool glass of the window. From this vantage point, it felt like I was hanging suspended above the whole city. All you could see spread out in front of you was city lights. The view was beautiful. It was a bit far from town, but it was worth it.

Besides, I adored _any_ house with a window seat.

The sound of crunching had begun from across from me. I glanced over at Cunningham and saw the lights without make little patches of red and green and yellow on his skin. Smiling to myself, I picked up half of the sandwich Cunningham had made for me—perfect and neatly sliced in half—and took a bite.

Ohhh, man. This was good.

"Step up from peanut butter and jelly, huh?" Cunningham asked me with a smile.

"Mmmk…" I said, my mouth still full and not wanting to open for words lest something came flying out of it. After a minute, I swallowed and sighed, leaning back farther against the window, "Yummy."

Cunningham gave a small laugh and took a huge bite of his sandwich, looking out the window to the view below. I took a good firm hold of the half of the sandwich and took another bite. I was going to have to work my butt off for this, but it was so worth it.

It took maybe a good thirty minutes of intensely concentrated eating to finish the whole thing. Cunningham had finished in half the time and was currently reading across from me, having already gotten up to put his plate away. Still chewing furiously, I got up and looked at the kitchen that would have swallowed up the living room in my house back in the United States. This was going to be difficult. Okay, so, if I were a dirty plate, where would _I_ want to go? _Crunch, crunch, crunch._

"Here, I got it," Cunningham said, placing hands expertly on the small of my back and the side of the plate at the same time. _Damn, he's good_, I think, pausing momentarily in my chewing to smile up at him. Then I watch as he gives it a rinse in the sink and slips the plate into the dishwasher. Finally, I get to swallow and lick my lips, getting the very last of the delicious aftertaste.

Cunningham came toward me, grabbing something that looked like candy out of a nice glass bowl on the countertop. "Mint?" he offered, holding it out to me.

"Why thank you," I said, taking it, ripping open the plastic around it, and popping it into my mouth. The intense freshness made my eyes water.

"So," Cunningham said, going back to the bay window and sitting, "what would you like to do now?"

"Ummm…well," I said, moving the mint to a side of my mouth with my tongue, "what time is it?"

"Not yet time to go back," he said with a teasing smile. I pouted and then pointed at him.

"I'm going to hold you responsible for my safety and welfare, okay?" I said. "If I get drunk at any point tonight it is your job to bring me back to HQ nice and safe."

Cunningham laughed, got up, and walked toward me. When he was close enough, he poked me right in the side. I squealed and backed up a little, covering up my side and stomach with my arms. "Don't worry, you are _not_ going to get drunk," he said, rolling his eyes and proceeding toward the huge living room. I trailed behind him, crunching on my mint.

What waited surprised me.

A glowing TV playing upbeat techno music, two dance pads, a gaming console…these did not really seem to fit into an equation in which Cunningham was involved. But I guess the media can't really get the dish about _everything_ in a celebrity's life.

"We're going to play DDR instead," Cunningham said, beaming down at me.

They certainly failed to report that Alexander "Cunningham" Hume had a thing for DDR.

_**---zoOM---**_

"I give up!" I pouted, dropping down to sit in the center of the dance pad. No matter how good I thought I had been at this game, Cunningham was better. Now, we both were sweating and we both had gone through two water bottles and I was still losing.

"You said that five minutes ago," Cunningham pointed out, confirming our results and then searching through the songs for another one to dance to.

"Yeah, I know, but I really mean it this time," I said emphatically, wiping my moist forehead. So much for working my butt off in exchange for burning off that sandwich. I pretty much just did, and then some.

"Sure you do," Cunningham said, his voice complete sarcasm. Meanwhile, I hadn't really heard him. I was thinking really hard about something that I seemingly forgotten, but partially remembered just now because of something we had said. "Come on, get up," Cunningham said, looking at me and tapping his foot against the pad. "Let's just play one more."

"Yeah, and you said that five minutes ago, too," I refuted and it was then that I remembered. "Oh crap, what time is it??"

"Time to dance to this song?" Cunningham suggested. I glared at him as I scrambled up and walked around the cavernous living room, searching for a time telling device of some sort. Cunningham could be really elusive sometimes, something he must have learned from his house, no doubt.

"Do you have any sort of clock in this—" I started to ask, when Cunningham replied, "11:55."

I turned to look at him snapping his cell phone shut again. He looked at me and shrugged, obviously missing my panicked look.

"I have five minutes until curfew?!" I said incredulously. Cunningham stepped back onto the dance pad. "And YOU still want to DANCE?!"

"Might as well," Cunningham said, turning to me and shrugging again. "Come on, Lotus, you know this house is on the outskirts of town and it'll take at least thirty minutes to get back to the track. You'll miss curfew tonight no matter what."

"But, but, but," I said, flopping down on the couch and reflecting on just how screwed I was, "I was holding you responsible for me!"

"Well, you learn something every day, don't you?" he said, grinning at me. Even though I was feeling very irked at Cunningham and how he seemed to have kept me from going back on time on purpose, his smile made me soften a little. "I'm not a responsible person."

"You can say that again," I muttered, crossing my arms resolutely over my chest. Then I let my head fall back against the back of the leather couch as I slid down a little. "Oh, what am I going to do? Addy and everyone will kill me. Heh, _Beckem_ will kill me."

"Oh, Lotus," Cunningham said, coming over and sitting beside me, "I'm truly sorry about letting you miss your curfew and I'm also truly sorry about your impending and inevitable death, but there's nothing that can be done."

"Wow, thanks, I feel completely comforted now," I said sarcastically, glaring at him again.

"But listen, how about this," Cunningham said, leaning in as if he was telling me a great controversial secret. "We'll wake up early tomorrow morning and we'll see if we can sneak you into your building without anyone knowing. And then you can just pretend that you actually did go back tonight. Just no one saw you do it."

"Okay, now you are being helpful," I said earnestly, mulling his proposition over. Then a very important realization hit me. "Wait, what do you mean '_we'll_ wake up early tomorrow'?"

"Well, you're probably going to have to stay here for tonight. I mean, what other choice do we have?"

Okay, there were plenty of choices other than this one. This very, very, very obviously bad one. I knew the alternatives were out there, but I was so tired and so blank and so surprised that I couldn't even think of one of them to put out there.

"I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea," I said, even though I already knew I didn't have any forthcoming good ones.

"I agree, but I'm not going to throw you out into the street to fend for yourself. Besides, whatever rumors you've heard, they aren't true. I do not turn into a man-eating monster at night."

In spite of the sticky situation, I laughed. "Are you sure you aren't spreading that rumor yourself, because I'm pretty sure I haven't read that one yet in one of those celebrity magazines."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Cunningham admitted, "but you know what rumor I have read?"

"What?" I asked, aware that his face was slowly but surely getting closer and closer to mine.

"That we're together," he answered. I could feel his breath on my face.

"And what are you going to do about it?" I whispered, already knowing what was coming.

"Make it true," he whispered back before his lips touched mine.

The kiss was the best. I mean, yeah, all the doubt and guilt about what I had gotten myself into kind of dimmed the potential brilliance, but it was still more brilliant than the shiniest star or piece of jewelry. Starting from my mouth, warmth and an electric buzz spread all the way down to my toes. When he pulled away, I felt the warmth linger and knew that that wasn't going to be the only one this evening.

In fact, I was going to prove that point right away.

"I don't think that was enough to make it true," I said before I leaned in to kiss him again.

* * *

**A/N:**** I have noticed that Cunningham is getting more and more OOC. That's bad. I'll have to keep that in mind as I write more.**

**Aren't I such a good girl? I updated! I'm in an updating frenzy right now. I updated one of my CL stories and now this one and I'm even thinking about updating my Naruto one. Wow. Be proud.**

**I'm still very thankful for my steady reviewers. I'm writing this for you guys. I do wish I could get more feedback from all the people checking out this story, but I shouldn't complain.**

**Hope you enjoyed it. Until the next steamy chapter...!**


	11. Deep Doodoo

**CHAPTER 11  
**_Deep Doodoo_

I had lost all track and sense of time. All I had was my sense of touch, my sense of smell, and my limited vision. The living room was almost pitch dark, as Cunningham had managed to turn off the TV and the lights at some point in our kissing fest. Now, I could feel his mouth moving down my cheek to my neck. It felt nice, but…

"I have a race in two days," I said. The butterfly kisses stopped.

The shadow of his face loomed over me as he straightened back up and looked down at me. "Are you worried?"

"It's against Satomi."

"Are you worried?"

I sighed and turned my face so that my cheek brushed the pillow my head was resting on. "I guess."

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"Is the Socratic method part of your pre-race warm-up or something?" I snapped back, sitting up abruptly and causing Cunningham to pull back a little to avoid colliding into me. At least that's what I thought he did because I couldn't see very well still.

"Whoa, bite my head off, why don't you," Cunningham replied, resentment edging into his voice. I sighed, feeling guilty and mean.

"Sorry. I just…I don't know."

"Feel angry that I kept you here after curfew on purpose?"

I turned to look at where I thought he'd be. "So you did keep me here on purpose! You jerk!" I took the nearest pillow and flung it against where I hoped his body would be. Somehow, he not only dodged the pillow, but ended up tickling me until I squirmed and slipped off the couch onto the floor, laughing and trying to catch my breath.

"You're just so irresistible, Lotus, that I had to have you all night," he said mockingly, his breathing not too slow either.

"Yeah, yeah, just show me where I can sleep safely for tonight and leave me be," I said sarcastically, getting up slowly and walking toward him. When my knee hit his knee, I wobbled and waited for him to get up and steady me.

"All right then, if that's how you want it," he said, his warm hand finding mine as he led me through the darkness of his huge house. Other than a few trips or bumps into walls, we made it upstairs and to the doorway of an empty spare bedroom without any major injuries. "And this is where this tour guide leaves you," Cunningham then said, turning so that he faced me. There was a little moonlight coming in through a nearby window, so I saw his face and eyes. Gentle concern was displayed there. But there was something else. Something like…love?

No.

It couldn't be that.

Not yet at least.

"Thank you. You were wonderful in your guiding duties," I replied. Then I stood on tiptoe as I kissed him one last time before disappearing into the bedroom and closing the door.

**_---zoOM---_**

Just like many mornings before, I woke up with sunlight tickling my eyelids. I turned to my other side, trying to escape, bunching up the blanket up to my chest. Mmm, sleep…

_FWAP._

What the…?

"Good morning, Lotus."

OH MY GOD! I jumped about a foot as I sat up, knocking my head on the headboard of the bed. Sunlight was now streaming through the uncovered window, the blinds having been pulled up. And there was Cunningham, standing at the end of the bed, looking at me with a quizzical and amused look. As I rubbed the back of my head, I bit down a scream that had started to bubble up.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed at him finally, once I got my mind back.

"I live here, remember?" he answered, smiling at me and walking out the door, leaving it open. "When you're all ready, you can come down. We'll go somewhere to get breakfast and then I'll send you back to HQ."

As he started to walk away, everything from last night came flooding back to me. Understanding happened. And then I jumped out of bed, and ran after him.

"Oh, you all set already?" he asked, with a little smirk still hanging onto his lips.

"No, of course not. But wasn't the plan supposed to be get Lotus back to her HQ before everyone wakes up so it would look like she was never gone? And now you want to go out for _breakfast_?"

Cunningham finally did laugh, a little chuckle. Then he inclined his head toward his right toward the wall of the hallway. "Check the time. I'm pretty sure even if we don't go out for breakfast, they'll be awake."

I looked. And doggonit he was right. There was a clock, something that I couldn't for the life of me find last night. Huh. This house _was_ evasive. But never mind that. I was so in deep shit.

"Why didn't you wake me up this morning then, Cunningham?" I yelled after him in despair. Reality was starting to sink in and it sucked.

"You looked really peaceful out cold, so I decided to let you get the full rest you deserve," he said, without even looking back at me as he went down the stairs. I rolled my eyes and followed him, not caring that my hair was messy, my clothes were a disaster, and that I probably looked terrible.

"We are leaving. NOW," I informed him as I followed him into the cavernous kitchen.

"But neither you nor I have eaten anything…"

"I don't care. We are going. NOW."

"Fine, fine," Cunningham said, snagging an apple from a basket of fruit nearby. "We're going, Miss Crabby."

I made a face at him.

**_---zoOM---_**

"Oh, this is rich."

I didn't know if I should have been grateful or not that Jax was the first person to see me when I got to HQ. Actually, right when I got to HQ, because as soon as I stepped into the building he came out of one of the elevators and had been having a field day ever since.

"Shut up." That was me. Obviously.

"Get a load of Miss Crabby," he continued. "So where've you been this whole time?"

"Would you believe me if I said I went out to take a morning run and then went to have breakfast?"

"Just because you phrased the question that way, no."

I sighed, leaning against the wall of the elevator. Whatever plans he had had he had ditched in favor of making fun of me as I returned to my room.

"Just don't tell anyone I was gone, all right?"

Jax leaned against the handhold along the wall of the elevator and posed his face into a pondering look. "Well, I don't know…it would depend on if you told me where you _actually_ were."

"Oh I hate you, Jax."

Jax shook his head slowly. "That's not helping your case, Lotus," he whispered to me, as if he was giving me a forbidden pointer. Then he settled back to wait. He knew I would cave.

And I did. "Okay, fine, I was with Cunningham, okay? But don't take it the wrong—"

Jax practically choked on his own spit. "You were with _Cunningham?_ Are you serious? Are you fucking serious? Ohhh, this is just so _great!_ Well, I have to tell now."

"Jax!" I protested. "I will beat you up and you know I can."

"Okay, okay, I was just kidding. But. _Cunningham_. Man, you're good." The elevator arrived at my floor with a _ding_ just as he said it.

"It wasn't like _that_, okay Jax? God…"

"Well, it's only logical I think that, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess. But that _didn't _happen."

"Okay then, what happened?"

I turned to face him. "Nothing _happened_, okay? So you can stop sounding so excited because it's kind of scaring me."

"Well, I can't help but be excited." I gave him an annoyed look with an eyebrow raised. Jax shrugged. "Well, our race _is _tomorrow." I pivoted back around and groaned. Jax laughed at my reaction. "You are coming to practice today, aren't you? Or are you going to ditch that too?"

"Haha, very funny," I said darkly. "Remember you promised not to tell anyone."

"Scout's honor!" Jax declared, giving me a goofy grin and a snappy salute before the door to my room slid shut on him.

**_---zoOM---_**

"Since Lotus never came _back_ to our meeting later in the evening, I'll just have to go over our strategy _again_ for her sake."

I had effectively managed to avoid anybody remotely acquainted with me for most of the day. But all of my efforts were starting to feel pointless now. I was sitting smack dab in the middle of our team meeting and Addy was trying to make me feel as bad and as much a piece of dirt on her shoe as possible.

It was whole bunches of fun, let me tell you.

I buried my head in my arms, listening to Addy drone on. This was so much like hell. At least Beckem hadn't yelled at me again. When I walked into the briefing room, he just greeted me with a hi and where have you been? I told him some made up story about losing track of time (at least that bit wasn't untrue) and he bought it. Or at least, it appeared he did. Now he was hopefully more on my side than Addy's as she kept on harping on me…

"Lotus, are you even paying attention to me?" Slowly, I straightened back up, meeting Addy's ferocious eyes. "We're doing this all over again for your sake, you know, because you were inconsiderate enough to extend your break indefinitely for a little vacation or whatever you went off to do."

"I am paying attention," I said slowly, tired and bored out of my mind, wanting and wishing to be anywhere BUT here.

"Don't give me that, Lotus. You obviously are trying to sleep instead of trying to focus on winning tomorrow out there on the track. Or do you _want _to look like a complete ass when you get out there tomorrow?"

"What if I do?" I countered, getting irritated. Well, she _was_ kind of asking for it.

"Well, then, Miss Sassy Mouth Lotus, be my welcome guest. I'm done here anyway. Let's just get suited up and get out there." With that she turned and left the room, slamming the remote control for the TV screens down onto the nearest desk as she exited.

I gave a groan inwardly and slid back down into my arms, closing my eyes in the darkness that my head and arms formed against the desk.

"Wow, great going, Lotus," Jax commented in the ensuing awkward silence.

**_---zoOM---_**

"It's a beautiful day for an epic race!"

"Could Ben turn down his microphone a bit? It's too early in the morning," Beckem groaned, massaging his forehead with his left hand.

"I highly doubt there's a volume switch on it," I commented sullenly, "but, yeah, less would be nice at the moment."

Considering I was already sufficiently dying of nervousness, I didn't need Ben to jumpstart it again and again every time he even so much as breathed into his mike.

The walk down the hallway to our garage couldn't have been shorter. When the three of us stepped into the mech room, Brad was standing there waiting and smiling. "There they are, my three favorite pilots." I managed a weak smile and stood back as he helped Beckem and Jax into their mechs first. It was tradition that I went last by now.

When Brad turned to me, I was ready to get into my mech. Not in the sense of I was ready to race. Just because I wanted a place where I could sit down. I could feel the lack of sleep cloud over my head and start to descend. My, what _perfect_ timing. Maybe I was a good enough pilot to doze and be able to fight and win at the same time.

Against Satomi? No.

Against anyone? Uh, no. Again.

"All right, rockstar. Make us proud out there," Brad said with a huge fatherly grin as I was lifted into my mech and deposited gently on my much-needed seat. I sighed, sinking into the hard, uncomfortable, but nice plastic. "Beat Satomi to within an inch of its life."

Again, I smiled weakly. "I'll try," I said to him. _If they don't manage to do that first._

Once all three of us were locked in, we rumbled our mechs to life and started the lumbering walking to the start of the track.

* * *

**A/N: Happy New Year to all of you!! I know it seems like I haven't updated this story in ages, and it's quite true. I apologize profusely. I've been caught up in the Naruto world. But I thought it was high time to update this story, especially since I was writing more of it the other day and felt inspired (although now I've hit a total road block, uggh). So in this chapter, Lotus really shows off her lovely charm. And the next chapter will finally be another RACE! I'm pretty excited myself. Are you?**

**Thank you so much to my four lovely reviewers. Thank you so much to ALL of my readers. I hope you enjoyed this one.**

**Until next time...!**


	12. Satomi

**Disclaimer: I do not own the song "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines." That song with the ridiculously long title is owned solely by Panic! at the Disco.**

**

* * *

**

**CHAPTER 12  
**_Satomi_

_There they are._ Satomi's mechs looked bigger, better, shinier, and more powerful than we were. The crowds were mostly a sea of yellow and blue. Figured, since Satomi was SATOMI (accompany with holy music) and we were…wait, who were we again?

The no good rookies, that's who we were.

I settled my mech into the position beside Takeshi and tried desperately to wake up. If only mechs had a place for you to plug music into or something…

Far too quickly, the multitude of screens in front of us started to countdown. The crowds beside us gave a roar that increased in volume, loud enough for me to hear clearly the "Go Satomi! Go Satomi! Go Satomi!" being chanted everywhere.

10, 9, 8…

Dear god, I really _really_ needed to wake up.

7, 6, 5…

I was four seconds away. WAKE UP WAKE UP.

4, 3, 2…

"Let's rock this house!" Jax suddenly screamed into the communicator. And if that didn't wake me up, I don't know what else would.

1…

GO.

My hand knocked into the forward throttle at just the right time when I jumped at Jax's exclamation. I tore down the track, and Takeshi immediately dropped from my peripheral vision. "Geez, Lotus. Slow down will you?" Beckem said. I breathed out deeply, and relaxed the tense muscles in my arms.

"I'm sorry. Blame Jax, he was the one that woke me up."

I heard Jax chuckle on the communicator. "That was the point."

"Well, you got your point across real well, thanks," Beckem said sarcastically, in a way that made me know that Jax had scared him too.

_Stop stalling, make a name for yourself_  
_Boy, you better put the pen to paper  
__Charm your way out_

The track vibrated my mech with a consistent and smooth friction. I relaxed even more as Beckem, Jax, and I circled each other. Benjamin Bright had been right. Today _was_ a beautiful day for a race. I had just been too cranky to see it.

Although I knew that I would pay later for my alertness now by pretty much falling right back to sleep as soon as the race was over.

But for now, it was cool. All was good in the world.

"So, is anyone else nervous, besides me?" Jax asked after we had a while of silence and contemplation. We went into the last turn and started to move into formation. I shifted to the front and waited impatiently.

"Yes," I said.

"Yes," Beckem reiterated.

"Good. I thought it was just me."

"You kidding? We're racing Satomi," Beckem said. "We're racing the best. Man, sometimes I can't even believe we got here. Sometimes I can't even believe we _are_ here. I never would have even let myself picture us right next to Satomi or Velshtein. But we are. So we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves if we screw up. There are so many other teams out there that would kill to be where we are."

I loved Beckem. Really. He could be so motivational sometimes. Despite all his annoying qualities, Beckem simply rocked.

"Which means we also have to prove ourselves," Beckem continued. We started down the home stretch. The second lap would begin in seconds. "Show all those Satomi fans and the world that we deserve this blessing we got. That we worked hard to get here, and didn't just cruise in on potential. Got it?"

"You rock, Beckem," Jax said.

"My thoughts exactly. On everything," I said with a smile, and put on an extra burst of speed to enter into the second lap.

"So here's our chance to shine," Beckem said, and all three of us turned around as one, our mechs changing into Battle mode.

"All right!"

_If you talk, you better walk_  
_You better back your shit up  
__With more than good hooks  
__While you're all under the gun_

I watched the Satomi mechs change right before my eyes. The sight of their beautiful racers moving, shimmering in the sunlight, made anticipation thrum through my arms and legs. I would be sinking into those lovely metal parts, soon. I would be crushing them.

And I would enjoy it.

I waited. We all waited. The track rumbled past.

They were hanging back, I saw. They were probably conversing among themselves, trying to work out a plan. They weren't ones to have fancy attack procedures or intricate formations, I knew. They just took whatever they were given. Much like how we fought.

This would be interesting.

And then, they charged.

_Start talking "a sensationalist"_  
_Oh, he's slightly clever to just a certain extent_

"Looks like it's gonna be one-on-one," Jax had time to proclaim before everything in my world became one jostled mess. Takeshi had charged directly for me with breathtaking quickness and I was engaged with him before I had time to take a steady breath. Immediately, hastily, I brought my mechs arms up and my own guard up. I had to be careful around these two-year veterans. They fought with reckless abandon, but that meant they fought _hard._

"Damn it," Beckem was muttering. Actually, Jax and Beckem had both started a practically constant stream of swear words ever since they had received initial blows of their own. I skated back to avoid a vicious hook and saw that Beckem was engaged in a wrestling match with the Satomi Defender while Jax was performing a series of ducks and dodges to Amy Stapleton's quick, rapid attacks.

Then another heavy hit shook my mech's frame and I decided that it was time to start paying attention to the mech that was attacking me.

_If you talk, you better walk_  
_You better keep your mouth shut  
__With more than good hooks  
__While you're all under the gun_

All three of us circled into a loop. All the while, Takeshi's strikes were quick as lightning and coming in rapid succession. I winced, trying to protect myself and find an opening. As soon as I found just one little hole, I could deliver a powerful strike. And as soon as I delivered the powerful strike, the tides would be turned and I'd get all the shots.

We pivoted around and around each other. At one point, we switched positions with him skating backwards and me driving forward. As soon as that happened though, I realized that he was trying to drive me back into my teammates. Pushing all of my mech's weight into it, I managed to swing myself back around to be skating backwards. Of course, this was a position with disadvantages; going forward while fighting was much better as you could fight and watch where you were going at the same time. But now Takeshi had put me into a position where going backwards was all I could afford.

What a sly dog.

_(Panic! meet the press)  
It's time for us to take a chance  
It's time for us to take a chance  
(Panic! meet the press)  
It's time for us to take a chance  
It's time for us_

It was all I could do to keep my mech upright while suffering such a massive amount of blows. I still hadn't found that one decisive opening that I was looking for, and we were nearing the start of the third lap. I still needed time to find that opening, deliver the incapacitating blow, and batter Takeshi's mech severely enough to ensure that he would not catch up with Speed mode during the last seconds of the race. So far, for all three of us, it had just been a melee, a chaotic free-for-all that had no real structure and no real point except to beat the other team into a lump of scrap metal.

"Jesus Christ!" Beckem yelled into his communicator. I gritted my teeth through the violent shaking of my mech. "They won't let up. I can't find an opening!" _Join the fucking club,_ I thought in frustration.

"I can't hold on!" Jax was screaming over the communication lines. "I'm not going to make it!"

_Well, we're just a wet dream for the webzine_  
_Make us it, make us hip, make us seen, or  
__Shrug us off your shoulders  
__Don't approve a single word that we wrote  
__Well, we're just a wet dream for the webzine_  
_Make us it, make us hip, make us seen, or  
__Shrug us off your shoulders  
__Don't approve a single word that we wrote_

"Oh no you don't, Jax," I warned loudly, anger flaring up with my frustration. "You aren't taking the easy way out of this."

"Then _you_ come help me, Lotus!" Jax roared at me, his voice choppy and jerky with the shaking of his mech. It was a ludicrous command because we all knew that that was not possible. Not one of us could help the other. We wouldn't even be able to disengage in time.

"If you are so set on going down, Jax," I commanded him with a biting tone, "at least take one of these pests with you."

I got no answer; the lines were filled with grunts and moans. I wasn't really expecting an answer anyway. I was noticing that Takeshi was starting to slow up, just the tiniest bit. He was getting tired, I realized with a little relief. His stamina had almost reached the limit. _I'm going to make it,_ I thought firmly, gripping my controls tighter.

_I'm burning and I'm blacking my lungs  
__Boy, you know it feels good with fire back on your tongue  
__If you talk, you better walk_  
_You better back your shit up  
__With more than good hooks  
__While you're all under the gun_

We entered the third lap just when Jax's mech fell apart. It scraped against the track painfully, throwing sparks everywhere like a magnificent fireworks display. I could feel a wrenching in my heart as it tumbled downward. A part of me wanted to slap Takeshi off of me and go racing back toward Jax at once, to see if he was okay, to make sure he wasn't injured. But I couldn't do that, of course. I had to win this race for him.

One good part about Jax going down though, was that Amy Stapleton was also nowhere to be seen. She had been knocked out of the race as well. I managed a little smile. Jax had been blocking her spill from my view, but I knew with an unexplainable certainty that Jax had stayed true to my task and pulled her down with him.

Then, just as I re-composed myself, I found my opening. As Takeshi got more and more tired, his blows became more and more sloppy. He stopped following up his blows with sufficient covering of the spot he had to leave exposed. I squinted in concentration. It felt like time slowed and I was watching through slow motion. His fist went up in a jab and it left his right side wide open. I ducked the punch and went in with a precise strike to the opening.

I smiled. This was going to be satisfying.

_Start talking "a sensationalist"_  
_Oh, he's slightly clever to just a certain extend  
__Well, keep quiet; let us sing like the doves  
__Then decide if it's done with purpose or lack thereof_

Takeshi flew back, probably in shocked astonishment. I didn't wait for him to come to me again; I went after him. Knees bent, I rocketed into him, sending him skidding back a little again. I reached out and grabbed hold of his mech's shoulder. I flung him forward and then skated forward to crash into him again. Now I was moving forward and he was skating backward, in no position to push me into my teammate. Who was panicking now, eh?

I sunk punches into him again and again. He was tired from his extended offensive on me previously and only could block a few of my blows at any given time. I was gaining the advantage. I was breaking him down slowly so that he would have no way to catch up with me. I was going to win.

_Just for the record, the weather today_  
_Is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of  
__A) indifference or  
__B) disinterest  
__In what the critics say_

I delivered a series of impressive kicks, each one striking Takeshi in the same area, all bound to get Benjamin Bright riled up. Then I grabbed one of the arms of his mech and swung him around violently, smashing him into the guard railing. After that I pulled him in close to me and delivered more blows to his mech's body. Takeshi's blocks were feeble, his dodges ineffective, his ducks too slow.

Surprisingly, no one called in the running skeletons. I was glad for it. A break for those would disturb the flow of my attack. Plus, if a running skeleton for Satomi was going to be called in, it'd probably be for Takeshi and it would freshen him up. That'd just mean more effort on my part to break him back down again. There was no reason for Satomi not to call in the running skeletons, however.

But they weren't and I was very glad.

The end was nearing. I could feel excitement coursing through me.

_It's time for us to take a chance_  
_It's time for_ _us  
Well, we're just a wet dream for the webzine_  
_Make us it, make us hip, make us seen, or  
Shrug us off your shoulders  
Don't approve a single word that we wrote  
__Well, we're just a wet dream for the webzine_  
_Make us it, make us hip, make us seen, or  
__Shrug us off your shoulders  
__Don't approve a single word that we wrote_

"Lotus…" Beckem suddenly shouted over the communication lines.

"Yes," I acknowledged him loudly over the rumble of the mechs and the crashing of the fighting. I performed a flawless spinning back kick and then followed it up with crescent kick, knocking Takeshi's mech's arm out of the way as it came up to attempt a blocking motion. I leaned in for a strike to his mech's body.

"…I…I can't…" Beckem's voice was crackling over the lines. I suddenly grew worried, my attack on Takeshi lessening as a result.

"Beckem? Beckem?" I repeated into my communicator, straining my ears to hear him speak. Nervousness started to take flight in my stomach. My butterflies were paying me a visit at the worst time possible.

"…own…Lotus…" was all I heard him say. Then, a burst of thick black smoke ballooned from his wobbling mech. I gasped and jerked back, startled in spite of myself. His mech immediately disappeared from my line of sight, falling back on the track. I did hear a deafening crashing sound come from behind me, though, loud enough to make me want to crane my neck back in immense worry. First Jax and now Beckem. I was on my own.

The thought was terrifying. I froze for a moment, wondering how I would even manage to stay upright until the end of the race. Panic started to seize me in a chokehold. I couldn't move my body in terror.

I was…alone.

_Just for the record, the weather today_  
_Is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of  
__A) indifference or  
__B) disinterest  
__In what the critics say_

Then I was scared into action. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Liz Ricarro, in her beat up and crumbling Satomi mech, lunge desperately for me. Instinct took over and I yanked my hands on the controls. Immediately, I jumped back from her and she fell short onto her face. Then she was lost from my line of view as well, falling behind on the track, her mech unable to function anymore.

So Jax had taken out the Midfielder and in turn Beckem had managed to take out the Defender. It was just me and Takeshi left. This was truly the one-on-one battle that Jax had said in the very beginning of the race.

And then Takeshi reminded me of his presence by ramming into me, almost knocking me to the concrete track. I screamed in spite of myself and fought to maintain control and composure. _Focus, relax, focus, relax._ But I knew that my opening at been lost. The tides had been turned once again, this time for the better of Team Satomi.

_Well, we're just a wet dream for the webzine_  
_Make us it, make us hip, make us seen, or  
__Shrug us off your shoulders  
__Don't approve a single word that we wrote_

We were near the finish line; I could feel it. Takeshi's blows were sloppy and desperate, but effective. I could only barely manage to squirm my way away from his initial blow before he hit me with all the strength he had left. I could feel despair filling every fiber of my body. I was going to lose the match. I had gotten distracted and because of it, I was going to blow the race for everybody.

No, I couldn't. And I wouldn't. Beckem and Jax had gone down to let me take a shot at the finish line. _There are so many other teams out there that would kill to be where we are,_ Beckem's voice rang through my head. _Show all those Satomi fans and the world that we deserve this blessing we got. That we worked hard to get here, and didn't just cruise in on potential._ I nodded at the invisible Beckem. _Got it._

I firmed my resolve and readied myself for the final seconds of the race.

_Well, we're just a wet dream for the webzine_  
_Make us it, make us hip, make us seen, or  
Shrug us off your shoulders  
Don't approve a single word that we wrote_

Takeshi came at me with a new surge of strength. I was there to meet him. We clashed violently and bone-jarringly and then pulled away again. I could feel and see pieces of both our mechs flying and chipping off with our collisions, but I didn't care. Neither did he. We engaged again, this time locking and wrestling with each other for the advantage.

_I'm not going to lose._ The third lap was coming to a close. We were just coming out of the final loop and home stretch was dangerously close. I had to get in Speed mode soon. There was only so much I could do now. All I _could_ do was pray that the damage I inflicted on Takeshi's mech before was enough to slow it down and that the damage he inflicted on mine wasn't enough for that same thing to happen.

I braced myself and tore away, out of his grasp. I gave him one last heavy blow across the face of his mech before I pulled away to give myself room to change modes. I wasn't fast enough, however. He had time to give me one last strike to the stomach before I got away.

Immediately I set myself down in Speed mode, hearing the tired metal of my mech screech and whine in protest. It was going to fall apart soon. Hopefully it'd hold until past the finish line. I could only pray…

_Just for the record, the weather today  
__Is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of_

We both thundered down the home stretch. I saw from the corner of my left eye that Takeshi's mech was pulling into place right beside mine. _Not good._ I shifted my controls and drifted my mech toward him, to try and nudge him away. He nudged back just as insistently. I set my teeth and pushed back, determined not to lose this little shoving match.

The finish line was right there. Right there. I could see it. I could see the crowds, the fans, jumping and cheering and screaming and pumping their fists. It was all too much. I gave Takeshi's mech one last little tap and then put all my effort into accelerating. It all felt too slow. I had to go faster. The finish line was right there. _Right there._

I closed my eyes. And then it was all over.

_A) indifference or  
__B) disinterest  
__In what the critics say_

My mech promptly fell apart in a steaming wreck as soon as it slid to a stop. I popped open the cockpit and extracted myself from my pilot seat, coughing at the smoke coming from various areas of my mech and soaking with sweat. The breeze that blew cooled me down considerably, feeling pleasant and soothing on my skin. I wiped my eyes and realized that I was crying. I didn't even know how long I'd been crying, but I was.

The screaming of the fans was all I could hear. I blinked a couple of times and then carefully let myself down from my ruined mech. When I reached the solid concrete, I nearly fell over, my legs were shaking so much. I reached up to wipe my eyes again and started to walk slowly.

Then a figure emerged from the steaming wreck beside me. Takeshi was walking toward me, his mech behind him looking much like mine. His face was blackened with the smoke and he was also grimy with sweat but he was grinning. I had never seen anyone so happy after a race like that before.

"Lotus!" he called out to me and I stopped, forcing myself to take deep breaths. I wiped my eyes yet again, hoping he wouldn't see that I'd been bawling my eyes out. When he reached me, he did the most unexpected thing: he hugged me.

"That was so awesome!" he exclaimed into my ear. "It was the most fun I had in a long time racing someone else. Man, that was exciting. You kept me guessing until the end!"

"Well, I'm glad I could entertain you," I forced out with a shaky voice, smiling at his enthusiasm. He pulled away and looked at me, reaching up a hand to rub away a little dirt on my cheek, as I was sure it was covered in it. I reached up and rubbed away a little of his too and his grin widened.

"So who won?" I asked, suddenly remembering the important details. He shrugged, as if he really didn't care who won.

"I think it was too close to tell right off. They are probably going to the film to figure it out." I sighed. That meant more anxious waiting. Even if it was only for a couple of minutes as the officials pulled up the film for the whole of the spectators to see.

We started to walk back toward the finish line. When we were almost there, I could see four people running for us. When we got closer, we could see that they were our teammates. Liz and Amy were making a beeline to Takeshi while Beckem and Jax were zooming straight towards me. And both of my teammates had huge smiles on their faces.

"WHOO HOO!" Jax whooped when he reached me, practically knocking me over in a bear hug. "That was AMAZING!" I patted his back a couple of times, my smile widening into a grin as well.

"Was it really?" I asked him, looking up into his face when he pulled away. Both his and Beckem's faces were also dirtied from the broken mechs.

"Hell yeah," Beckem answered me. "You finished stronger than we both would have ever dreamed, even though your mech was obviously in danger of falling apart." He grinned at me and came in for a hug as well. I smiled as I hugged him back, remembering the terror I had felt when I had realized I was all alone. At least now I knew how to handle myself in a similar situation.

I caught a glimpse of Takeshi receiving a similar reunion with his teammates before Benjamin Bright's familiar booming voice washed over the spectators and us. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's see what the film has to say! Who has won this spectacularly exciting race?" he shouted in excitement.

Beckem, Jax, and I also turned our attention to one of the big screens surrounding us. I watched as the camera focused on the finish line and the tips of my mech and Takeshi's mech came into view. The speed of the film was slowed down considerably to get a clear reading. As the mechs came farther into view, I noticed how beat up both of our mechs looked. It was much worse than I had imagined it to be. I was a bit glad that I didn't know the full extent of my mech's damage then.

The audience, which had been roaring previously, was practically silent now as they waited, tense with anticipation. Everyone was holding a collective breath, watching the ending of the race re-unfold in front of them…

I held my own breath as the mechs were about to cross the finish line. I had the sudden urge to close my eyes but I resisted it. It was bad enough that I had closed my eyes when I had actually finished the race. That was the worst thing I could have ever done. So, now I had to watch even though the suspense was almost unbearable…

Then, the evidence was clear and the crowd roared in response.

Takeshi and I had crossed the finish line at the same time.

We had tied.

"WHOO!" Jax yelled again, hugging me anew and jumping up and down in excitement.

"It was a tie! IT WAS A TIE!" Bright was shouting into his microphone. "OH MY…"

The first emotion I had felt was, actually, disappointment. I had not won. I had not been good enough. I had not honored the efforts that Beckem and Jax had made when they wiped out. I had not been _good enough._

But suddenly, I felt a hand placed calmly on my shoulder. I wrestled away from bouncing Jax as I turned around to see who it was. And I found Addy, looking over at the screens proclaiming and flashing the results, with a serene smile on her lips.

"You did not win, Lotus," she said tranquilly, her voice only a little above her normal volume. But I could somehow hear her clearly. Perhaps it was the fact that more than anyone else, I wanted to hear what she had to say to me. I was straining to hear her words. "You did not win, Lotus," she repeated, "but you were good enough."

My disappointment vanished like water being vaporized. She looked at me and smiled.

And I gave her my biggest smile back.

* * *

**A/N: I realize the wait has been long, but this was a very long chapter, so I hope everyone enjoyed it. I have a major writer's block on this story right now, so the udpates probably still won't be very regular. Hopefully, I'll have time soon to just sit down and think this whole story out again. Then I'll write more of it. I really do want to finish this story.**

**Thank you to my reviewers for last chapter and my reviewers for all the chapters. A big thanks to my rockin' readers too. I hope you had as much fun reading that race as I had fun writing it.**

**So, anyway, until next time then, which might be in a long time, but we'll see...**


	13. It's Just Business

**CHAPTER 13  
**_It's Just Business_

Not even one day after tying with Satomi in a race that seemed to get the whole world talking, we had a problem. A big one.

"We need a sponsor," Mr. Karlen said bluntly. He had called an emergency (he didn't use this exact word but we all knew it from his strained expression) team meeting and had gotten straight to the point. He never was one for eloquent words, anyway. Maybe that was a good thing.

"Oh dear," Addy said with a long, tired exhale. Apparently she had been in this predicament before and it was a troublesome predicament indeed.

"And that means…" Jax prompted.

"Someone needs to endorse this team in order for us to continue racing. We need the publicity _and_ the money." Mr. Karlen's forehead was crinkled into lots of thin wrinkles. It seemed that he had a massive headache. "And we need to find one soon."

"Is this another rookie team thing?" Beckem asked in a wary voice, almost as if he already knew the answer.

"Yep," Addy said instinctively, even as Mr. Karlen opened his mouth to explain. He frowned even deeper and now looked irritated as well as worried.

"Other teams already have found sponsors in past years," Mr. Karlen said after Addy didn't bother to elaborate. "And now we need one. So, any ideas?" His wrinkles receded momentarily as he looked around at all of us hopefully.

"I'm out," Jax said, sliding down in his seat with a sigh.

"Me too," I agreed.

"Ditto," Beckem intoned. The wrinkles were coming back. Mr. Karlen was starting to look desperate and I was not feeling any sympathy. He was pretty much the most incompetent manager I had ever seen.

"Well," Addy said again from where she was standing behind us toward the back of the room, "it won't be very hard. Platinum is doing very well so far considering its rookie status. I wouldn't be surprised if we start getting phone calls soon."

"Are you sure?" Mr. Karlen asked, squinting at her in an attempt at a stern expression.

"Absolutely," Addy said. We all turned around to face her. She gave us a smile.

_**---zoOM---**_

"So did your coach let you come or did you have to sneak out?"

After the Race was a bustling little restaurant with a pretty much kickass name. People were sitting, eating, chatting, laughing everywhere. All the tables seemed full, but there was somehow still room for the six of us. I guess being a celebrity (was I now?) did certainly have its advantages. The moment the waiters caught sight of the six of us strutting in with our sunglasses (I love how we ALL had sunglasses; it seemed a prerequisite for pilots who wanted to walk the streets unnoticed), they just KNEW. HELLO, high profile people coming through.

So, after the also prerequisite mini-autographing session (obviously, Team Satomi got more autograph requests than Team Platinum but I was surprised even one person asked), we were ushered kindly to the most secluded table they had and were now comfortably sipping ice water (ice tea for Amy and I) the restaurant had supplied us.

Jax laughed at Takeshi's question. "Why would you say that? Does sneaking away from coaches happen often?"

"Are you kidding me? All IGPX pilots do it. Don't you?" Liz laughed and lifted her glass of water to her lips.

"We didn't sneak out this time, but we'll probably start soon enough," I offered, twirling the straw in my ice tea around with my fingers._ And_, I thought to myself, _at the rate things are going, I'll be the first one do to so. _But actually, I already did, I remembered. I decided to keep that information to myself.

"Hey, look, we're on TV," Beckem said, pointing to a large flat panel television right beside us. All of us turned our heads to see an instant replay of yesterday's race, or, at least the end of the race. Over and over, Takeshi and I crossed the finish line at snail's pace, the tips of our mechs crossing the line at the same time. "Wow, they are obsessed."

"Well, can you blame them? 'First year rookies give third year veterans Team Satomi a run for their money.' Can't you see that those headlines will be everywhere after that race?" Liz picked up her fork and pointed it at us for emphasize. "It's good for you but bad for us, that's what I say."

"And besides, why do you guys think we are treating you to lunch? We don't break bread with all of our opponents." Amy smiled at us sweetly as Luca stuck his head over the table, looking around to see if food had arrived yet. "You guys really are good. And we respect that."

"Aw," Jax placed a hand on his heart. "We really respect you guys too. Thanks for…HEY, that's ME!" He pointed excitedly at the television. The Platinum Midfielder was fighting for his life on the television screen, except for the fact that he was doing it in slow motion. "I look so awesome."

Takeshi couldn't help but laughing. "Sports broadcasters do this after every race. They break it down and analyze all of our moves and strategies. Sometimes its funny to listen to them guess strategies wrong, but other times they actually have some good insight. Personally, I think we could really benefit if we listened to these guys more."

"Do they have any advice on how to get a sponsor?" I asked, sipping at the very yummy ice tea. Liz immediately turned to me with a knowing look.

"Oh, are you facing _that_ problem?" she said. I nodded, a little freaked out about how familiar she sounded with the situation. "I'm so sorry." And the apology looked serious and genuine too. "That problem gave us stress for weeks. Although we probably weren't as good as you guys on the track when we were facing the problem."

"Yes, but you guys have Luca. Simple solution," I said, looking as the white cat glanced my way at the sound of his name.

Amy shook her head. "Not so. It was hard to get a company to take him on."

"Well, it's going to be hard to get a company to take _us_ on," Beckem said with a sigh, taking his folded napkin on his plate and spreading it out on his lap.

"Nope, not so." Liz shook her head knowingly. "Probably what'll end up happening is one of you will do all the sponsorship work and the rest of the team will get off scot-free with no worries and still get the benefits."

"Well, that sucks," Jax said, before dumping an ice cube into his mouth and crunching on it.

Liz shrugged. "Just the way it works." Then she spotted what we had been waiting for the whole time. "Food's here!" she announced happily. It was then I realized that I was starving.

_**---zoOM---**_

"Who're we against next again?" Beckem asked as we made our way to the elevators. We were back once again at team HQ, a building more familiar to me than my house back home in the states. Our little reprieve of it with Team Satomi hadn't lasted long. Actually, any reprieve from this building didn't seem to last very long, because sooner or later, we'd be back here anyway, wiling away the hours until our next big race.

"Edgeraid, I think," I said, shrugging. Beckem reached across me to punch the up arrow on the wall for the elevator. "That should be fun."

A small ding sound emanated from the elevator and the doors slid open. All three of us were just about to step inside when Mr. Karlen came out, a big smile on his face. Jax, Beckem, and I exchanged quick confused/amused glances. What was going on now?

"Ah, pilots," he said. His voice had a cheerful lilt that I found awfully suspicious. "I was just about to go look for you." The sheer absurdity of that statement made it incredibly funny. Here was a guy that could barely manage an IGPX team and he had been about to traverse the whole of this IGPX town to find us, without knowing the slightest place to start. Addy had probably set him up to do this, laughing in private after he left. Addy usually was the most respectful out of all of us toward Mr. Karlen, other than Brad. But we all knew Addy had the same feelings about him as we did.

I wasn't the only one who realized this humor. Jax snorted and then had to disguise it as a coughing fit. I saw Beckem out of the corner of my eye struggling to keep a straight face. I clenched my fists and tried not to replay Karlen's statement in my head. I looked up at him with a face of attentiveness, an angel pilot ready to listen to her manager.

"I have great news." Mr. Karlen looked as if he could have clapped his hands together with delight. "I've found us a sponsor." I highly doubted _he_ did anything on his own. But we all played along.

"Oh, that's great," Jax said, in an unusual display of good acting. There was no sarcasm in his voice whatsoever, which was really impressive. "We were out all lunch racking our brain for ideas." Beckem and I openly looked at him with raised eyebrows. Now that was pushing it, dude. But Mr. Karlen lapped it up.

"Oh, really? Well," he said with a big grin, "there is no need to worry now." He gave a little dramatic pause, enough time for the intrigued audience to take a quick breath. "AthletiTech has agreed to sponsor us."

"Who what?" Jax asked, squinting his eyes at Karlen. All of us had about the same question at that same level of eloquence too. _What wack sponsorship have you gotten for us, you dud?_ I wanted to scream. But, of course, I refrained from doing so.

"AthletiTech. It is a new designer sportswear line by Hannah Benden that will assuredly be all the rage once our name is associated with it. The clothes are made of a new state-of-the-art eco-friendly fabric that breathes and stretches easily but is extremely durable." I watched my manager in amazement as he prattled on. Already, he was like a walking advertisement for these clothes. It was crazy. I guess there was one thing he was good at after all: being exploited by the corporate industry.

"It's a very promising venture," Karlen continued in his didactic voice, "and I'm sure you'd agree with my decision to jump at the opportunity. I'm sure other offers will come in, but we _are_ kind of desperate and they offered us _very _good terms so I felt obliged too…"

"So how exactly are we going to be associated with them?" Beckem asked, obviously not too enthralled with Karlen's lecture in fashion and so-called business negotiations.

Mr. Karlen looked surprised, as if we were stupid, stupid little people if we didn't already know. "Why, Lotus will be modeling their clothing line for them, of course."

That hit me like a slap in the face.

"What?" I snapped.

"Ho ho ho!" Jax chortled, probably goaded by the look of utter horror on my face. "Oh, do tell us more! We are all _very_ interested."

To my right, Beckem covered his mouth and turned his face away from me. But from his shaking shoulders, I could tell that he was trying very hard not to crack up in my face.

**_---zoOM---_**

An hour and a half later, I was sitting in a large and luxurious black sedan that was being driven farther and farther into the town that surrounded and revolved around the IGPX. I looked out the window and watched in indifference as beautiful streets and quaint street shops passed. This was not to be a fun excursion into town. This was to be an excursion of business and hell.

Oh, and it would also more or less decide my immediate fate. Just thought I'd throw that in as well.

Addy sat beside me, just as mute and indifferent as I was. I was glad to have her company because she was on my side, not just in the car, but on the modeling job as well. I didn't have much time to talk to her beforehand to work out a strategy to make sure that this deal didn't happen (pretty much as soon as I got back to HQ, it was off to my two o'clock "appointment" with the head of the clothing line), but I was sure that once we got there, she and I would play off of each other.

Across from us was Mr. Karlen, seated facing us. He was looking out the window and humming a little unfamiliar tune. Only he seemed to be enjoying the nice weather and manicured town outside.

I couldn't see what we had pulled to a stop in front of until I got out of the car, and when I did, I was immediately intimidated. For some reason, this seemed worse and more nerve-wracking than waiting on the track to race against Satomi. I was standing at the foot of a huge skyscraper, with glittering cool blue windows that reflected the sunlight and the few clouds that were lazily drifting by. Everything about it was crisp sharp edges and serious, suggesting that a major corporation resided in it. My eyes drifted down to in front of me. Large black lettering glinted at me, sending the name impressively into my face: ATHLETITECH.

"Lotus." I refocused on the people that I had come here with. Addy and Mr. Karlen were both standing at the silver revolving door that was the entrance to this behemoth. It was Karlen who had spoken, looking at me with an expectant face. I moved forward before I thought about moving forward. My feet walked me toward the revolving door and then walked me inside the building.

The theme was obviously silver. Silver or cool blue, when needed. The receptionist desk was silver and a long semi circle, arching around the stylish receptionist. While Karlen and Addy walked up to go talk to her, I looked around and felt painfully aware of my ugly clothing. Pretty much, I had woken up this morning and thrown on a pair of jeans and one of my favorite T-shirts: a vintage (or what I consider vintage) band shirt, with Fall Out Boy in big block letters on it. Then I had walked to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and decided that I looked presentable for a day out in the public.

Obviously, this was not so.

I looked around as official-looking employees strutted around in their crisp tailored suits (for the men) and long-legged cool slacks for the women. It was the women that I most paid attention to. All of them had on high heels; open toed, closed toed, stiletto, plain, black, patterned, you name it, they wore it. It was amazing. Some also had form fitting pencil skirts and cute little overcoats. And some of them, I guess the ones that felt "casual" today, wore what looked like warm-up pants and a zip up jacket. Which still made them look semi-formal anyway, because it just looked that good on them.

So I felt a little self-conscious and a lot grateful when Addy and Mr. Karlen started walking for an elevator. I followed them quickly, wanting to get out of Fashionistaland as fast as possible. Once inside the nice solitude of the elevator, I exhaled an audible sigh of relief. Addy glanced in my direction and gave me a little, closed-mouth smile. None of us said anything. The elevator music played a tinny little tune.

Then the doors slid open and again I was a deer caught in headlights. We entered a floor much like the ground floor, except for there were more glass walls and doors and offices. My head whirred with all the walking and talking and phones ringing and papers shuffling and talking and walking. I followed Mr. Karlen obediently, afraid of getting lost in such a place. We wound our way through the maze and then stopped at a young secretary's desk. She smiled at us and told us to go on ahead. I didn't exactly know where "ahead" was until Mr. Karlen pushed open a big glass door and held it open for me. I went ahead.

Inside the big, important looking office was a neat dark wood desk and behind the desk was a young, stylish woman, standing to greet us. However, even standing, she wasn't a very imposing presence. For example, she was shorter than me, even though I assumed she was wearing high heels like the rest of the woman in the facility. Even so, the air about her suggested somehow that she was an extremely important person and should definitely be respected. She smiled at me, her teeth a brilliant, flashing white. I smiled back nervously.

"You must be Lotus," she said.

* * *

**A/N:**** I realize it's been a long time. I apologize for that. Now that it's summer, hopefully updates will come faster.**

**I'm glad so many of you liked the race against Satomi. I definitely enjoyed writing that race. I guess it came out well. c:**

**Thank you to all my readers and to the person that thought up the sponsor (she knows who she is). Thank you to all of my lovely reviewers as well. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter that was mostly trying to break my writer's block.**

**Until next time...  
**


	14. What Some Would Dream Of

**CHAPTER 14  
**_What Some Would Dream Of_

Hannah Benden, the mastermind of the whole AthletiTech line, turned out to be the woman with the impressive office and dark wood desk. And she was also the woman that then took us on tour of her even more impressive workplace. I was surprised that she didn't ask me any questions, like I thought she would. You know, a little interview. But she just smiled that bright smile and said, "Let me show you around this place."

"This place" was awfully big. A long time later…

"Well, this room will probably be the last room that I'll show you, and it's fitting, as it is probably the most important room of my whole business. The designing room." She opened a wooden door and walked inside, leaving us to follow her short curly dirty brown hair. Inside were big long and flat silver tables, on which were scattered long sheets of paper, desk lamps, pencils, pens, and rulers. Around eight people were hard at work at different tables, their heads bent over paper as they scratched on them with writing utensils.

"Everyone calls me the genius in this venture, but that isn't exactly the truth," Hannah Benden explained to us with a sweep of her arm at the room. "My secret is that I hire the best and brightest young designers in the world to come design clothes under me. I also design clothes as well, but nowadays, all the newest designs come from these bright men and women." The said bright men and women didn't even look up to see who was interrupting their peaceful working environment. We might as well have not existed to them. "They are my secret weapon," Hannah added, winking at us. When she winked, I finally noticed her blue eyes, bright and almost searing when compared to her pale white skin. And when I say pale white skin, I mean _pale white skin_. It looked as if she either had never been in the sun before or didn't know one existed and so never bothered to find out. Compared to her, anyone could look tan.

"Well, that's pretty much all I've got," she proclaimed as she moved toward the door with us trotting along behind her. "Not much, but enough to send your head spi—"

"Miss Benden!" All of us froze when a booming, irritated voice sounded from outside in the hallway. Interestingly enough, out of the corner of my eye, I saw all of the previously impervious young designers flinch, although, to their credit, none of them brought their eyes up from their work. Later I figured out that this was as much to be a good employee as to avoid eye contact with the one person most feared in this company.

My first glimpse of this commandeering man didn't tell me that much. When he strolled briskly into view, I saw a tall, handsome young man. He had flaming red hair that was mussed up on purpose and smooth white skin free of freckles. On his face were jet black sunglasses, making his eyes hidden and his face hard to read. But, from the creases in his eyebrows, everyone could tell that this man was not happy right now.

"Where the _hell_ have you been?" he asked Hannah, his voice tinged with a heavy British accent. "I've been looking everywhere for you." As he spoke, my eyes drifted down his body. He had on a tucked in, pale blue button down shirt, with its collar flipped up around his neck. A thin black tie hung loosely around his neck to continue with the mussed up theme. Nicely tailored and creased black slacks, cinched with a black leather belt, went down to shiny black dress shoes. All in all, he looked like a member of a British boy band, dressed up for a day of photo ops.

As I examined him, he had let loose a spew of words. "We've got designs that need to be reviewed and approved, calls to return, magazine covers that need okaying and a meeting for the next cover opportunity. We've got the rendezvous with the advertising committee and the change in themes we need to discuss. The meeting with our insiders at Indigenous Activewear is also today and we _still _haven't seen the bloody model from our generous sponsorship offer..." His voice trailed off as Hannah smiled at him, slowly stepped aside, and then tilted her head toward me. I blinked when I noticed that now there was no one between me and this ranting—although very hot—lunatic.

"Oh," he said, stopping to catch his breath. "Dear god," he continued.

Hannah clapped her hands like she was a fifth grade teacher. "Let's move this party to my office, shall we?"

**_---zoOM---_**

"I knew we should have asked for a picture." The red head dragged a large hand over his face, sighing in frustration.

Hannah Benden was back behind her desk, as bright and happy as ever. Mr. Karlen, Addy, and I all sat in front of her, with me in between the two of them. I frowned, picking up the implied insult, and was readying a smart comeback when Hannah came to my defense. "Why?" she countered, her voice still as calm as ever. "I think she's quite lovely." She smiled at me benevolently. I thought she was pushing it with the "lovely." Lovely was the adjective used to describe Victorian princesses, not me. Hannah leaned in and whispered to us, "He's Lance Carmine, stuck-up lead designer."

"'Lovely?'" Lance scoffed while Hannah whispered. "Bollocks. And her sense of fashion is apparently nonexistent as that is the ugliest shirt I have ever seen."

"I find it eye-opening. Vintage. And it's Fall Out Boy. You can't go wrong with them." She winked at me again.

"I told you from the beginning, Benden, just forget this whole promotional scheme. Have Indigenous make a bloody fool of themselves with their IGPX pilots and let us have real models. The ones that sell _clothing_."

"I would guess you'd like the real models even less than pilots, as the models have no brain while the pilots at least have enough of one to operate a large, hulking machine."

"I. Do. Not. Care. I just want—"

"Stop it!" Addy's voice shot through the argument, clear and firm. Lance and Hannah stopped their exchange and glanced at her, while Mr. Karlen and I swiveled to stare at her as well. She leaned back into her chair and reached a hand up to rub her forehead. "Honestly, you two are acting like children," she said under her breath.

A moment of awkward silence followed Addy's outburst. I looked from Hannah to Lance. Hannah looked down ashamedly into her lap as she brushed something off her navy blue pencil skirt and Lance tugged at his tie and fiddled with his sunglasses. Finally I decided that this was my chance to say something and although I found myself scared to draw attention to myself (which is hardly ever the case), I steeled my will and opened my mouth.

"We—" I started, and then cleared my throat. I tried again. "Well, to be honest, I'm not too thrilled about being your model either." I saw Lance's eyebrows shoot up above the rim of his rectangular sunglasses lenses. "Right now, I'd much rather focus on being a pilot than being anything else. It'd take too much time away from my racing. Besides, I'm not exactly the modeling type…"

"Brilliant," Lance said, nodding vigorously. "Now, Miss Benden, we can forget this whole venture and—"

"No!" This time it was Mr. Karlen that interjected loudly. He gave me a stern and desperate look when I glanced at him to see what was wrong. "Please, Miss Benden, I assure you that Lotus is a very hard worker and fast learner. Whatever is needed, you can be assured that we can make time for it in our schedules." Hannah seemed to nod approvingly and shot a haughty look at Lance.

Meanwhile, I was becoming very angry at Mr. Karlen and his constant air of direness. "We can find another sponsor," I said, directing it straight to my manager. "This won't be the _only_ offer that comes in. You want Platinum to do well, don't you? Then don't make me go through this. I hate models and modeling and cameras and all that publicity stuff. You might like it, but I don't. With all this stuff going on, I'm not going to be able to race as well."

"In that, you are wrong, Lotus," Addy said on my other side. Surprised, I turned to face her. "I actually think this is a good opportunity for you. This will not only expand your career, but be a source of good experiences. So, I recommend you go through with it and don't use the excuse that your performance on the track will suffer." She smiled at me, but I just stared back. What was going on? Was she on drugs or something?

Hannah was by now nodding enthusiastically, her short hair bobbing along, up and down. "Besides, Lotus," she said kindly, drawing my attention back to her, "I need you for my vision. I need you to help make my clothes _great_." She then held a little theatrical pause, in which I saw Lance put his face in his hands in bitter defeat. "Then it is decided!" Hannah proclaimed, standing up. "Lotus Carmarand, you are to be AthletiTech's newest female model. Welcome aboard." She stuck out a pale white hand which I had no choice but to shake.

**_---zoOM---_**

The next day started foggy and grey, with a hazy bright smudge as the sun trying to burn through the thin layer of clouds. Unfortunately for Benjamin Bright, today he wouldn't be able to say his (by now) almost copyrighted opening sentence. "It's a beautiful day for an epic race!" was turned into, "The fog has set the dramatic scene of the second race of the second week of the IGPX!" Bright's attempt at a mysterious-esque voice completely failed as he reverted back to his peppy old self toward the end of the sentence. "Today's its Velshtein and Sledge Mamma, two old veterans in the sport both with their eyes set on a victory!"

"Well, of course," Jax commented absently, fiddling with his blue and silver cell phone. "They wouldn't ever have their eyes set on a defeat, now would they?"

"You never know." Beckem was sprawled next to me on the maroon couch, staring with a bored eye at the giant television screen. "Last time it almost seemed like Sledge Mamma was giving Satomi an early Christmas present."

Jax frowned at his cell phone. "I want an early Christmas present."

"Here," Beckem said. Jax looked up just in time to get a pillow to the face. "Merry Christmas."

Jax snapped his cell phone shut and tossed it on the low, glass surface coffee table in front of us. He grabbed the pillow roughly in his hand, a mischievous grin spreading from his lips to his whole face. "Dude, don't even start. I will _own_ you." He chucked the pillow in one fluid movement back at Beckem. Beckem lunged to the side to avoid it, grabbing it out of midair and then throwing it back.

"Children, children!" I leaned forward with both arms outspread, interrupting the pillow death match. "Behave yourselves," I said in a scolding tone. Jax lowered his head, as if he was ashamed of what he had done. Beckem just gave both of us a silly grin and settled back again to watch the pre-race Benjamin Bright spiel.

The rest of yesterday had been spent poring over film and tactics with the amicable Addy. Not a moment of rest was allowed with that one. Letting us have most of yesterday free was already too much time wasted on relaxing. Back to work, back to work.

Work. Ha. That reminded me of my modeling/sponsorship gig. That sucked too. The fact that amicable Addy didn't stick up for me and, in fact, shot me down. The argument that modeling for the clothing line would take away too much time from racing was the only really legitimate excuse I had for not doing it (other than the fact that I completely and utterly hate every single aspect remotely associated to the modeling world) and Addy completely murdered it. So now I was stuck with this job and this company. Me: unhappy.

"What's wrong, Lotus? You look like you just ate a lemon." Jax was looking at me intently, a concerned expression gracing his face. Behind him, I could see that Bright was still happily blabbing his mouth off.

I shook my head. "It's nothing."

"Oh yeah, how'd that modeling thing go?" Beckem asked, glancing at me. My face immediately clouded over. His right eyebrow lifted. "That good, huh?"

"I couldn't get out of it," I said, sighing and sinking back into the cushiness of the back of the couch. "I tried and failed. So now I am condemned to being the face of AthletiTech, or whatever it is called."

"At least their name is cool," Jax said, shrugging and looking at me for approval.

"Right," I said flatly.

"Look, Lotus, think of it this way," Beckem said. "A million other girls would kill to be in your position right now. Getting offered a modeling gig for a clothing line would be a dream come true for them. For you, sure, it's a pain because you don't think the way they do, but you could at least try. I mean, I'm sure when you were little you wanted to be on the cover of your little girlie magazines at least once."

"Actually," I started, not without a little pride, "I never read girlie magazines. I've always just wanted to be an IGPX pilot." I watched in satisfaction as Beckem's face dulled with my easy rejection of his point. "But I get what you are saying," I said, by way of making him feel a little better. "I shouldn't be a brat and complain about getting a chance a million other girls are wishing for."

"Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, you are better off than a lot of them. You're an IGPX pilot _and _a model. Which means you are famous _as well as_ hot." Jax grinned at me and I smiled back, although I rolled my eyes.

"The race is set to start in just a matter of minutes, folks, and the sun has thankfully started to burn away the thinning fog! Get ready for another intense race in the IGPX! We'll be back after this quick commercial break!" Bright's immense face faded to black and then a commercial for cat food came on, featuring—what do you know—Luca, Satomi's very own pilot cat.

"Cute," I commented as Luca ran lazily across the screen, showing off his silky and shiny coat, his tail up high and twitching. After the commercial, Bright's voice came back on, but the screen was swooping in at the starting line on the IGPX track, where six ginormous mechs were getting settled in their starting positions. My heart skipped a beat when the shot zoomed in onto Cunningham's mech. _Good luck_, I sent him a mental message.

"Well, then. Shall we?" Jax turned to look at the two of us. I nodded and all three of us leaned in as one to each pick up a legal pad of lined paper along with a pen from the coffee table. Note taking time.

**_---zoOM---_**

Just as expected by most analysts, Velshtein pulled off a hardy victory (those analysts could breath a sigh of relief; their jobs were safe for one more race), but it hadn't come as easy as most expected. Based on Sledge Mamma's opening performance this season, it seemed they were just about ready to get demoted to the IG2s, but it's amazing what a week of training can do. Sledge Mamma was, for the most part, steady and solid; they returned blow for blow and hit for hit. All in all, they looked like how they used to look, which is how they are supposed to look in order to stay in the IG1s.

Velshtein still came out on top, however. Their pilots' skills were still top notch and that's why their pilots were once again standing in the winner's circle with Benjamin Bright at the end of the race. For Sledge Mamma this match did little more than prove that they were not, in fact, pushovers.

"Another flawless victory for the members of Team Velshtein…" Benjamin Bright was gushing, drawing out the "a" vowel sound in "another" as if he was an auctioneer at an auction. I rolled my eyes at the voice of the IGPX and was just about to dismiss the whole matter when Bright announced, "Cunningham, overall, how did you feel about this race?" Then I remembered. The last time Bright and Cunningham met in the winner's circle, bad things had happened.

Crap.

I did a quick survey of my two best friends and teammates. Jax was still focused on his legal pad, putting the finishing touches on a doodle that he had drawn when he was bored during the race. But Beckem was watching the interview. Granted, he was doing it with an extremely bored look on his face, but he was still paying attention.

I clasped my hands together and squeezed them tightly, praying to every god out there that Bright didn't ask something embarrassing about Cunningham's personal life. I could deal with it if I was watching it by myself, but with my friends next to me? Oh dear lord. I would contemplate suicide.

Bright went from Cunningham to the Velshtein Midfielder and then to the Defender. Then he moved back to Cunningham and I thought for sure this was it. The moment that would make my life miserable. But Bright simply asked Cunningham some baloney question about if he had been feeling confident about the race or not and then the pilots trudged away back to the locker rooms. I breathed out a sigh of relief, maybe a little louder than I intended to, because Beckem's eyes followed me as I allowed myself to fall back into the back of the couch. His eyes held a question about why I seemed so relieved, but I ignored him.

As my eyes skimmed over what I had written on my legal pad of paper, I found that a part of me felt a little disappointed. Maybe a little part of me had wanted Bright to ask Cunningham about if we were together or not. Maybe that little part of me had wanted to see what Cunningham would have said. Would he have denied it or acknowledged it? He had said that night that he would make all those rumors true. So we were together, I could only assume. Still, it felt a little weird and oddly rushed. Like, really, I had just met the guy and now we were all lovey-dovey? I'm not even that way with Jax or Beckem, and I've known them for ages. But maybe that was just an awkward best friend kind of thing. You know, you'd never get together with your best friend…

I don't know. My train of thought was derailing quickly. All I could figure was that it felt a little unreal still, Cunningham and me. Maybe he found me wildly attractive and so that's why we got involved so fast. _Or _maybe he just wanted to psych me out as a rookie and use it to his advantage later. That's probably what Addy'd say to me, if I asked her.

Or maybe. Or maybe this whole life I now led was just too crazy and unreal to believe in the first place. And this little thing between Cunningham and me was just the richly sweet, imaginary icing on the amazingly delicious, imaginary cake.

* * *

**A/N: First of all, I should apologize for the long wait.**

**Second of all, I should apologize for the mistake I made in the last chapter. I am completely mortified that I spelled my own character's name wrong. I guess it was just because I hadn't written this story in a while and forgot. Or, it could have been because Mircosoft Word only recongizes the spelling of Beckem as _Beckham, _and so it got huffy when I kept on spelling it _Beckem_, which to Mircosoft Word, is wrong. Oh well, whichever one it was, it's over with. I'm just sorry. Forgive me?**

**I'm pretty far into the next chapter already. Lotus's first photo shoot...haha, that should be a whole bucket load of joy. c:**

**Anyway, thanks to my lovely (you guys are now Victorian princesses and princes) reviewers. And mucho thanks to the creators of AthletiTech and Indigenous Activewear (they know who they are). Mua!**

**Until next time...!**


	15. Have Some Composure

**CHAPTER 15  
**_Have Some Composure_

The next couple of days were relatively uneventful, for which I was grateful and not grateful for at the same time. I had kind of gotten used to having some kind of hubbub or another happening every day, so when there wasn't such said hubbub, the day felt oddly empty and I felt oddly misplaced with my free time. I was dying to see Cunningham, but was deathly afraid of interrupting him and his busy schedule. So I practically didn't talk to him at all except for the one text he sent me shortly after Edgeraid won over Skylark in a fairly normal IGPX race. (Everything suddenly was feeling _normal_, I guess.)

_Congratulations on your race. I see you've improved.  
Hope to see you soon, Cunningham._

So, perhaps we weren't as lovey-dovey as I had previously assumed. After all, there was no indication that anything was out of the ordinary by just reading his text. Despite of a little feeling of disappointment in my heart at the message, I also felt undeniably pleased. _I see you've improved._ That sentence made me think back to that first conversation I had with him at that pre-season pilot social. The conversation where he basically dismissed me for being a noob and needing to work a lot harder in order for me to belong in the league they were in. Now I had improved, in his eyes. Maybe now, I belonged.

But even as I was starting to find my place in the racing world where I felt the most at home, there was another foreign land that was I definitely not fitting into. The land of AthletiTech and modeling. The same day I got the slightly disappointing, but overall heartwarming text from Cunningham, I got a cheery-as-ever text from none other than Hannah Benden, whom I did not know had my cell number.

_It's Hannah from AthletiTech! I just wanted to know how you are doing and to remind you to eat lots of fruits and veggies. Also, lay off the junk food. Not good for the skin, you know? XD  
Have a nice rest of the day! I'll be calling you later to tell you when your first shoot will be (aren't you excited?!).  
XO, Hannah_

Now, that text just left me feeling nauseous and horrified. First of all, a simple text was not enough to know how a person was, so that was a whole half of a sentence gone to waste. The little plug for fruits and veggies (but NOT JUNK FOOD) was also half funny and half infuriating, because I could totally see through the clear skin ploy and knew that Hannah wanted me nice and fit and _skinny_ for the shoot, not fat on junk food. Then the calling me later about the first shoot aren't you excited?! just ruined the rest of my day, which gave the sentence "Have a nice rest of the day!" an ironic zest. First of all, NO I was not excited about my first shoot and second of all, did that mean the first shoot would be happening soon? Because I was not up for it to happen this soon after my initial very warm (not) welcome into the AthletiTech family. Besides, I just found out I would be modeling for them, for heaven's sake. Can't I even have a little time to get into the modeling-ish mindset?

All this thinking made my head hurt, so I tried to relax by just laying on my plain bed in my plain room at HQ alternately day dreaming about Cunningham and listening to upbeat music while imagining my races to it. The next up was Edgeraid, so I would picture their mechs rumbling around the track, rumbling toward me only to get smashed back by an epic blow delivered by yours truly.

Okay, enough. I hardly considered any of my blows to be anywhere close to epic. But a girl can dream.

While life for Jax, Beckem, and I went fairly smoothly and easily, Addy's was no such sailing. Everyday we met with her, either on the track or in the briefing room or both. Everyday we poured over strategies, reviewed mechanics, drilled facts, and trained to face different Edgeraid formations. Being an IGPX pilot is not all waving with a smiling face at the fans after you win a spectacular race. It involves all the work that is need to make the race spectacular, the not so fun part that everybody seems to miss or overlook.

It was after one of these hard work days that I got the call. We had all just endured a harsh session in the simulators and were eager to jump into the showers to wash off all our sweat and grossness. I emerged from the steamy shower feeling squeaky clean and very refreshed. Wrapping a fluffy towel around my body, I went toward my clothes that were folded and lying neatly on a bench nearby. That's when I heard the cheerful tune of my cell phone ringing.

I rushed over, foolishly hoping that it might be Cunningham. As I ransacked my clothing, trying to find the source of the electronic music, I mentally assured myself that if it turned out to be either Jax or Beckem prank calling me, I would kill them. Why they would call me while they themselves were probably in the showers, I couldn't say, but that was my thought process. I finally found my cell phone, which I had left in a pocket of my jeans, and yanked it out. The number on the front of the screen was unrecognized. Puzzled, I flipped the cell phone open and held it up to my still moist ear.

"Hello?"

About all the happiness in the world exploded in my ear. "Hi, Lotus! How are you? I hope I'm not calling at a bad time."

I winced, squeezing the eye nearest to the phone shut. "Who's this?"

"It's Hannah Benden from AthletiTech, remember? I'm calling to tell you about your first photo shoot for us!"

Ohhh, that. Great. I sat down on the bench, sliding my now messily piled clothing down so that I would have room. Why yes, this is the most fabulous time to call. "Oh right," I said instead, sounding like I just woke up from a nap.

"Yeah! I've scheduled it to be on Thursday of this week. That's in two days. Can you do that?" Thursday…I calculated in my head. My next race was on Saturday in the morning. Unfortunately, it seemed that I had nothing planned for Thursday other than training and strategizing, which Addy would obviously let me take a break from since she insisted so plainly that modeling wouldn't interrupt with my performance on the track.

"Thursday…sounds…good…" I forced myself to say. Thankfully, the reluctance in my voice sounded to Hannah as if I was thinking really hard about whether I was free or not.

"Fantastic!" she said, sounding over the phone as if she was shouting it into the receiver. "I'm really glad you can do it on Thursday, because if there had been a conflict, it would have been really hard to reschedule all the time slots for the track and the photographer and his crew and oh, it would have been an _absolute nightmare_. But once again, you have made my job easier for me, Lotus. Thank you so much."

"Um, yeah, sure. You're welcome." I had no idea what she was talking about, so I decided just to go along with it. What the hell.

"So then. It's settled. Your shoot will be on Thursday morning, at eight o'clock sharp. Try not to be late. I suggest you get a good amount of sleep the night before, but not way over the amount you usually get. We wouldn't want you looking groggy, would we?" She giggled at her own little joke (which I wasn't even sure _was_ a joke, but I laughed along). "Also, the night before, try not to drink too much water. It'll help your face look nice and pretty with the makeup at the shoot. As for what to wear to the shoot, don't worry too much about it because we will provide the clothes for you there. But you might want to consider something zip-up or button-up. Try to stay away from anything that pulls over the head, so that it won't smudge your makeup too much. Do you think you can do that?"

"Um, sure." My head swirled with things I had to do.

"Excellent! So at eight o' clock in the morning on Thursday, just go to the track. You'll meet up with everyone there and they'll tell you what to do. Unfortunately, I'm busy and can't be there with you…"

"Wait," I said, snapping to attention. "You won't be there?" Suddenly I felt very scared of going it alone. It wasn't as if I had some special connection now with Hannah Benden or anything; it was just that so far she had been the nicest person at AthletiTech (although she was rather weird and too peppy for my tastes) and if she wasn't with me, I didn't know if I could take the abuse of a whole bunch of other people acting just like that bigot Lance. When Hannah was there, at least she'd find something nice to say to me once in a while. Without Hannah…I guess it'd just be Let's Bash On Lotus Day.

"No, I won't; I'm sorry, sweetie, but I've just got way too much stuff to take care of. But don't panic. Paul and his crew are all gentlemen and will take good care of you, I promise." I did not feel assured. "Now, remember. Your shoot is Thursday at eight o' clock and you are meeting everyone on the track. Did you write that down somewhere so you won't forget?"

"No, I can remember it…on the track? What track?"

Hannah Benden giggled again. Apparently I had asked a stupid question. "On the race track, silly!"

"You mean the IGPX track?"

"Yep, the very one! Anyway, I got to get going, but I hope you don't forget! Thursday, eight, track. Hope it goes well! I wish you all the best! Talk to you later, bye!" And with that, she hung up.

I snapped my phone shut and stared blankly ahead. The IGPX track? Why in the world would my photo shoot be on the IGPX track?

**_---zoOM---_**

Why in the world would my alarm clock be going off at…(pry open eyes to check)…seven-thirty in the morning? I groaned and turned away from the garish music that was playing on the radio. Some number two hit on the charts…like I cared. I usually never got up before nine unless I wanted to spend some quality time with the track. And I hadn't been planning on that today…

…or had I?

I sat up, now irritated as well as worried that I was forgetting something. Heck, I think I was irritated _because_ I was now worried. I reached up and patted the monstrosity on my head that, when tamed, would be called my hair. Really, there was something really REALLY important that I seemed to be missing. Something that someone had repeated to me a lot last night because I still faintly remember it this morning.

"…_here's the setting: fashion magazines line the walls now. The walls line the bullet holes…" _the radio sang at me, emitting some old song from the 2000s. I guess it wasn't a number two hit after all. It sounded like something I'd enjoy listening to, which made the song impossible to be a well-liked modern song. I bobbed my head absently to the music, listening to more. _"Come on, this is screaming photo op. Come on, come on; this is screaming…"_

CRAP! Almost before I was consciously aware of myself moving, I had sprung out of bed and dived to try and find some clean clothing that had the least chance of embarrassing me. There had been something I was missing, something important, colossal, momentous.

My photo shoot. _"Try not to be late,"_ Hannah Benden's cheerful voice echoed in my ears. Fuck, I was going to be late.

Suddenly, abruptly, I stopped halfway through pulling up a pair of jeans. Technically, I could just not go. I could just fall back in my bed (after turning off the radio, of course), snuggle comfortably under the covers, and try to get some more sweet sleep. I could pretend that I overslept. I could pretend that I had contracted a sudden case of the flu. I could do anything, and just _not go_.

I didn't even know why I was in such a hurry now. Probably just last night, I had had waves and waves of revulsion against being a model. And now I was jumping out of bed, scared of being late to do just that? What had happened to me overnight?

But even as I scoffed my new half-time profession, I knew that I'd go, just like a good little girl. I'd go, even if I didn't completely know why. I yanked on my jeans and zipped the zipper, then rummaged through the closet to try and find a button-up blouse. Probably it had something to do with what Beckem said about not being ungrateful about a chance that only one in a million got. It seemed ironic really, that a chance that millions of girls around the world coveted had landed on the shoulders of someone who didn't want it. It made me feel selfish again and like a spoiled brat. Determined now to prove that I wasn't a brat, I spotted a white button-up blouse with a collar, pulled it out harder than necessary, and swung it onto myself with intensity. That was probably the fastest I'd ever done up that amount of buttons.

I stumbled next into the bathroom. I didn't look as bad as I had expected; the monstrosity actually resembled hair on the first try. I ran a brush quickly through it and then grabbed for my toothbrush.

After the teething brushing was completed, I went back to my room. I slipped my cell phone into a pocket and then did a circle standing still, trying to think if I had forgotten anything. With nothing coming to mind, I checked the clock (now at seven-forty six) and then left.

My legs worked overtime to get me to the track. I should have known that I wouldn't have been late by now, because the track was a less than ten minute walk from HQ at a leisurely pace. But still, a combination of Hannah's and my voice bounced around in my head, urging me to power walk or else I'd be late. So I did and as a result, I arrived at the entrance to the track with exhausted legs and lungs working hard. I finally allowed myself to slow down here, partly because I didn't want to appear out of breath and disheveled from the very beginning, and partly because I was beginning to feel nervous. What if I walked onto the track and _no one was there_? That would be the ultimate worst…

I need not have worried. When I stepped fully onto the track, it was bustling with activity, with people running around everywhere I looked. To my right, some of the bleachers had been made into what looked like little makeshift booths, the white curtains that was the walls of the booth billowing slightly in the morning breeze. A little farther down the track, there were other white curtained structures that were bigger and more important looking, because many people were scurrying in and out of them.

The next to catch my eye were the masses of equipment everywhere. There were huge lights on thick black tripods and other machinery that I couldn't put a name to. These were popular with the busy personnel too; every once in a while one of them would stop next to a piece of equipment and fiddle around with it, as if to get it just perfect. I followed the people as they traveled back and forth for a while until I saw the gigantic shadow that I should have recognized for what it was before I looked.

To my left, I saw to my utter surprise, was my mech. And it looked stunning. I don't think I had ever seen it look so gleaming, new, and beautiful. It towered over everyone, as if watching the proceedings with a bemused and apathetic eye. The early morning sun was shining directly behind it, making it seem like the mech was outlined in gold. I stepped out farther to take a better look at my mech. It almost looked like an angel, the light behind it setting the scene for its holy appearance. I was struggling to shut my gaping mouth when the appearance of another shut it for me.

"Lotus!" a figure waved at me, emerging from behind a leg of the mech. The sun behind the person was making he or she hard to identify, but as he or she walked closer, there was no doubting it.

"Brad!" I greeted back, my voice full of warmth that was otherwise absent from the slightly nippy air around us. "What are you doing here?"

Brad, my favorite mechanic, scratched his head and shrugged. "These crazy people couldn't settle for a computer image of her," he said, gesturing toward my mech. "They wanted the real thing so I had to bring her out of the garage. Eh, I guess some sunlight would do her some good anyway. Beautiful, isn't she?" He turned to look up at her and I did the same. We both stood in silence for a moment. Then Brad said, "My men did a good job patching and cleaning her up, eh? We didn't trust these photographer goons with touching her up, so we did it ourselves."

I was just about to ask him why my mech was out here in the first place when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned.

"Lotus Carmarand?" a kind, deep voice said. I looked up to see a middle aged man with salt-and-pepper hair. He was clean shaven and smiling down at me nicely, little wrinkles bunching up at the corners of his eyes. For some reason, I got the feeling from those wrinkles that he smiled often.

"Yeah, that's me," I said, not knowing what to expect. His smiled widened a little more as he took his hand off my shoulder and stuck it in front of me to shake instead.

"Paul Royce, your honored photographer this morning," he said graciously. I could hear a little touch of old chivalry in his voice, which made me smile. I placed my hand in his, which made my hand look pathetically small, and shook with him firmly. "I'm looking forward to working with you," he continued, "and by the look of that smile, I can already tell my job today will be easy." It took a moment of figuring to get that this was a nice compliment and I dipped my head a little.

"Thank you," I said.

"You are most certainly welcome," he replied. "Now, I think the ladies at hair and makeup are waiting for you, so go straight over to that little station over there." He pointed to the booths on the bleachers that I had first spotted. "I'll be getting everything all set out here, so when you are ready, I guarantee you that I'll be ready. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," I said, in an almost peppy voice. His guy Paul certainly brought out the best in me, I could see that already. He winked at me and then walked away toward my mech.

I turned and walked the opposite direction toward the little white curtained booths. When I got there, I saw three young-ish women sitting on various portions of bleacher, chatting to each other. One of them was sporting a smoking cigarette. When they saw me, they immediately stopped talking and just watched as I approached.

"Is this hair and makeup?" I ventured tentatively. The woman with the cigarette took one last long drag and then threw the cancer stick on the bleacher at her feet, using her stiletto shoes to squash it out of existence.

"Sure is," she said, giving me a smile that might have been strained. "Lotus Carmarand." I couldn't tell whether or not my name had been framed as a question so I nodded anyway.

"Well, sit on down," said another woman. She had platinum blonde hair that was almost white. It hung down straight in layers to just past her shoulders and the tips curled inward toward her face. She smiled at me, and I saw super white teeth between lipsticked, ruby red lips. She seemed nice and spirited from the sound of her voice and I felt a little more comfortable. She had unblemished white skin, but it was not as pale as Hannah Benden's. She patted what I now saw as a makeshift table/countertop before her and her co-workers. It was positioned so that I would sit on the bleacher step behind it while they did my beautifying.

The one who had been smoking got up and stretched, her lumpy grey sweatshirt sliding up a little to reveal a white flat stomach. She had a massive amount of red curly hair that was done up in a messy bun at the back of her head. On anyone else, it would have looked hideous, but she pulled it off because of the curliness of her mane. As I walked closer and maneuvered my way to where I was supposed to sit, I saw that she had freckles all over her face, but it didn't detract from her prettiness.

The woman that hadn't yet spoken to me turned and immediately opened up a huge kit of cosmetics. She was the only one that looked like she was working as she sifted through the mess of products, her dirty blonde hair pulled out of her eyes in a short ponytail that indicated that her hair wasn't long. She wore small rectangular glasses, with thick black rims that looked very stylish on her. Suddenly, she snapped her head up at me and narrowed her eyes. I was startled and sat down on my bottom a bit harder than I had planned to, but she just turned right back around to the bin of makeup. I realized a few seconds later that she probably hadn't been glaring at me; she had been scrutinizing my face to see what would look best on it.

"I'm Candy Stevens," the blonde one said and winked at me, her long black eyelashes looking to me like they would be awfully heavy to lift. "I'll be doing your makeup for the shoot today and that one busily rummaging around there is Monica Earnesta, the color and tone specialist. She'll also be helping with the makeup."

"I'm Kali," the red-head said, not bothering with a last name, "and I'm going to work with the only thing left: your hair. Although from the looks of it, that'll be easy."

I was about to point out to her that actually my hair adopted the persona of a monster in the mornings, but then I saw her pull out the hair tie in her own hair, which took a little while, and then retie it back in her bun, which took a while longer of slow intricate finger movement. Anything would be easy compared with the hair she has, I realized.

Without any further delay, the three ladies got to work. I felt like a painted doll while they work, Kali fussing with the hair while Candy and Monica did up the eyes just like that and then the lips, painted in a perfect shape. I had no idea what they were doing to me until they had finished and Kali handed me a hand mirror. Taking a deep breath, I peered into it at…myself?

"Aren't you just gorgeous?" Candy cooed, leaning over my shoulder so I could see her face in the mirror too, right next to my own. "And with the right clothes, you'll be _hot_."

My already tan skin seemed to shine bronze in the early morning light. It was smooth and clear. My eyelashes were thick and dark, curving up naturally. My eyebrows had been trimmed into perfect shape and my eyelids dusted with a light silver blue. My lips were glossy and full, not extremely red but a lively rosy pink. My hair wasn't anything fancy. Kali had straightened it and somehow under her hands, it seemed to shine with new luster and behave perfectly well. I had never been this done up before. The effect was startling and I had yet to find out whether it was good or bad.

"Off the to dressing rooms with you," Kali said, patting me on the back as if that would get me going. "You'll probably come back to us a couple of times throughout the day, so I suggest you get used to it." She gave me a small smile as I made my way back onto the track and started toward the big white building a little ways away, guessing that it was the dressing room. I was correct.

"There – you – are!" someone said to me as soon as I entered. I knew before I turned to look who it was. The British accent gave it away. "Those makeup artists certainly took their sweet time with you, didn't they?" I looked over at Lance and he momentarily stopped in the middle of rushing over to me, taken aback. Then he recomposed himself and strode over to me importantly. "At least they did their jobs." Lance looked away from me, but I still heard him mutter, _"Otherwise, they'd be out of one."_

I was ushered into a curtained off section of the tent with an assistant, who had already what I could only assume to be my photo shoot outfit in her hands. She helped me slip into them and I found then surprisingly well-fitting on me, although they looked positively tiny in her hands. Before I had time to admire the clothes I were in, the assistant pushed me back outside and Lance was waiting to accost me.

"Fine," he said, after he had given me an once-over. "It'll do for the first couple photos." _How many photos are we going to take?_ I thought nervously. He put an arm lightly around my shoulders and steered me toward the opening. "Now what's important is the attitude, you understand? The clothes and the cosmetics can only do _so much_. So, I want you to look hot, all right?" _How does one go about doing that?_ I felt like saying snidely. Wisely, I kept my mouth shut and just nodded. "You have to exude confidence and fearlessness, maybe even be a little condescending to the camera, but _don't_ ever ever EVER be a brat. There is a fine line between being _hot_ and being a _brat_ and unfortunately, most models don't get it. I'm not giving you a choice though; even though you are an amateur, you are going to be perfect, understand?"

I barely had time to nod. The whole time we had been walking briskly toward my mech that was looming up on us. The breeze that blew by was chilly than before and I wondered why. Then I remembered that this idiot Lance had decided to truss me up in a miniskirt for the "first couple photos."

"Remember, _hot_. Not _brat_," he said as his parting advice. He pushed me forward a little and then walked toward the camera crew. I kept on walking toward my mech, not knowing what else to do, and felt relief when I saw Paul coming towards me.

"Well, then, supermodel. Ready?" he asked me. I smiled the best I could and then followed him to the set.

* * *

**A/N: This one came pretty quickly, didn't it? I know. I'm proud of me too. Anyway, I didn't want to write about the whole photo shoot. This chapter is long enough already. But if you are disappointed, I'm sorry. I just wasn't inspired. Right now, I'm more inspired to write races, so don't blame me if I kind of rush to those. But there is another photo shoot that is scheduled to come up before the Edgeraid race, so expect that.**

**Does anyone remember when the IGPX festival thing was? You know, the one that Takeshi was really pumped about beating all the other Forwards in and Liz modeled in. I know what it's about, but I don't remember exactly when it is. If you remember, send me a message. Right now, I'm just going to stick it about halfway through the season. c:**

**Yay! Yay! Thanks for my reviews! I love you all.**

**Until next time...**


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